Ten Seconds
by Infrared-Ultraviolet
Summary: Ten seconds. That's how long he has to touch her. Ten seconds. That's how long before his entire body burns and tears and fills up with the worst kind of agony. Ten seconds. That's how they try to keep him away from her, and her away from him. But they're never going to succeed. NickxJudy childhood friends shock collar AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

 **Hello, and welcome to the story! I do very much hope you guys enjoy this fic, because I COMPLETELY fucked up my planned-out fanfiction schedule to write it XD Like actually, I had like 5 long RotBTD fics planned out plus a bunch of one-shots, and I knew what order I was going to write them in and when I was going to submit them and everything.**

 **And THEN. I SAW. ZOOTOPIA. AND I GOT THIS STUPID LITTLE PLOT BUNNY THAT TURNED INTO A GIANT FUCKING PLOT RABBIT THAT I COULDN'T GET RID OF NO MATTER WHAT I DID. And here we are 12 parts later, with the fanfiction that never would have been written if I had any commitment at all to my previously-planned fics ^^; Whoops!**

 **Be warned—if you're looking for a drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat and is filled with intense action and dramatic cliffhangers, this probably isn't the fic for you ^^; This is more of a slice-of-life fic about Nick and Judy growing up together, with appropriate drama mixed in due to the whole they-love-each-other-but-can't-touch-for-more-than-ten-seconds issue. If you're chill with that sort of thing, you'll probably like this story just fine! Damn, I don't know what it is with me and relatively plotless chapter-by-age OTP-growing-up-together stories XD *Glances at 15-part Jackunzel fic***

 **That said, this is my first Zootopia fanfic and I really have no idea what the reception to this will be. Back when I started writing this (back in March, if you can believe it!), the childhood friends AU was actually relatively rare, so I thought I was being soooooo original XD But now it's all over the place! Hopefully, though, this'll be a somewhat unique spin on it. Also I decided to compress the 8-year age gap between Judy and Nick to 2 years. I still wanted there to BE an age gap, but I also wanted to make it believable within the "childhood friends" setting. Can't really have a 16-year-old being besties with and developing romantic feelings for an 8-year-old, you feel?**

 **Okay, enough of my rambling! This will update either once a week or once every two weeks on Wednesday, depending on how busy I end up being during the college quarter. I will definitely let you all know by next update if it will be once a week or once every 2 weeks! And fear not, the story is already 100% completed, so you don't have to worry about it getting abandoned or discontinued or me "losing interest" or "life getting in the way" or any of that. You WILL see this story through to its conclusion! I hope you like it!**

* * *

 **Judy: 4**

 **Nick: 6**

* * *

The first day of kindergarten hadn't gone as well as Nick Wilde might have hoped.

When he had pawed at the thick fabric of the collar enclosing his neck before he left for school, his mother had waved a paw dismissively, saying, "Don't worry dear, the other predator children will have them too." She had assured him he would have no trouble making friends.

She had been wrong.

Nick didn't know what exactly he had expected, but the fearful stares from the prey animals and the vicious whispers from his fellow predators wasn't it. He really had tried his best, talking to as many kids as he could and being as friendly and pleasant as he could manage. The conversations he did manage to have were short and clipped, with the other kids making it abundantly clear that they were only humoring him so as not to get called out by the teacher for not being inclusive.

At lunch, he _did_ find a group of big cats to sit with (although he was fairly certain they only did so out of pity). When recess came around, he had only played with them for a little while before they drove him away, claiming that he "wasn't a good enough supervillain." One by one Nick went to every group of children on the playground, and one by one they told him "you can't play with us anymore" after he'd only been there a few minutes. They would always find a reason, no matter what he did.

As he made his way down the elm-lined sidewalk, he let out a huff of frustration. To any passerby it would look like he was slumping under the weight of his little backpack, although it barely weighed anything at all.

Perhaps he would have better luck tomorrow, but it seemed like no animal at Ramson Elementary, predator or prey alike, wanted to be his friend. And the little fox was utterly perplexed.

 _Why don't they like me?_

And to make matters worse, he still had a whole 10 blocks to go before he would be home to his mother's comforting words and homemade snacks that he so desperately needed right now.

 _This is the worst day of my life._

At that moment he was passing through a very nice neighborhood, the clean-painted two-story houses with well-groomed lawns and symmetrical gardens a far cry from his and his mother's own dingy house. He eyed them curiously as he passed, wondering what it would be like to be able to see all the way over the roof of a neighbor's house through a second-floor window, or to have one of those glimmering cars that would mean he wouldn't have make the 30-minute trek to and from school each day.

A soft rustling cut into Nick's thoughts. He froze, pricking his ears curiously. It sounded again, and he realized it was behind a wooden fence bordering one of the big houses.

The little fox inched forward, wondering if he could peek through a hole in the fence and see who was fumbling around behind it. His mother would probably tell him it was none of his business, but she wasn't here, was she? And he admitted it—he was curious to see just who lived in a house like this.

Suddenly the rustling stopped, and a sleek gray shape flew over the fence, landing right in front of Nick. He let out a yelp and stumbled backwards.

"Hi!" the animal bubbled. It was a tiny gray rabbit, looking to be a little younger than him, with bright purple eyes that gleamed with unbridled excitement.

"Wha…? Uh…hi." Nick looked away shyly, fixing his eyes on the ground and fidgeting with a strap on his backpack.

"I'm Judy!" she told him enthusiastically. "What's your name?"

"Nick," he muttered, still studying the ground.

"Do you live around here, Nick?" she asked. "I've never seen you before."

"No…uh…I live a few blocks thataway." He pointed down the street. "I was walking home from school."

"You wanna play with me?" Judy the rabbit piped up.

Nick looked up in surprise. Another animal actually _wanted_ to play with him?

Joy began to bubble up in Nick's chest, but he forced it down. Something wasn't right.

"Aren't bunnies s'posed to not like foxes?" he asked, thinking of the group of rabbits in his kindergarten class who were always shooting worried glances his way, and inching away from him whenever he walked past.

"They don't?" The purple-eyed rabbit looked genuinely puzzled by the sentiment. "Why not?"

Nick fingered his collar, wondering if he should tell the little rabbit that once upon a time, foxes ate rabbits. He considered for a few seconds, and decided against it. He didn't want to ruin her wide-eyed innocence, and aside from that she was the only animal he had met all day who seemed to want to be his friend. _Maybe I can tell Mama I made at least one friend today!_

"I d'know," he replied finally. "This big group o' bunnies at kindergarten was avoiding me all day. But I didn't do anything to them!"

"Well, that's dumb!" Judy huffed.

"Yeah…" A smile tugged at Nick's snout. "They're all just a bunch of dumb bunnies. But _you_ don't seem like a dumb bunny," he added quickly. "Can I still play with you?"

"Yeah, come on!" She reached out to grab his paw, but he jerked it away.

The little bunny looked taken aback. "What's wrong?"

"I can't touch a prey animal for more than 10 seconds or my zap collar'll go off," he explained.

Her purple eyes widened in horror. " _What?_ That's awful!"

Nick shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Mama says they put 'em on predators 'cuz sometimes predators can get kinda mean and hit prey, and if they don't let us touch a prey for more than 10 seconds than we can't hurt anyone bad."

"But you don't _all_ want to hurt the preys, do you?" Judy asked, sounding anxious. "So why do all predators have to wear zap collars?"

"Cuz they don't know who's gonna get mean and who's not," Nick explained.

"So can't they put you through a niceness test or something?"

"Mama says they're just being super super careful so none of the preys ever get hurt, so they put zap collars on all of us."

"Well, whatever your mama says, it's _still_ dumb," Judy proclaimed importantly, crossing her arms. "But I won't touch you so you don't get zapped."

He gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"Now come on, let's go play!" She bounced over to the gate leading through the wooden fence, hopping up to undo to latch. Nick grew giddy with excitement as he poised himself to walk through the gate. He was going to see a _rabbit's_ backyard for the first time!

Judy's backyard wasn't particularly exciting to the average onlooker, with a trampoline situated in the middle of a neat rectangular expanse of grass and the only other noteworthy things being a small vegetable garden growing by the back fence and a few cone-shaped hedge trees lining the side fences. But to Nick Wilde, it looked like the most exciting playspace the world could possibly have offered.

"Okay, now you're gonna be the mean old thief who's robbing a bank, and I'm gonna be the really brave cop who stops you!" Judy declared. Nick nodded obediently, taking off his backpack and setting it down on the grass.

Her cheery smile quickly turned to a scowl, and she made a gun shape with her paw and pointed it at him. "Stop, in the name of the law! You're under arrest for taking money from innocent animals!"

Nick gave her his best menacing grin, holding an imaginary bag of cash over his head. "Mwahaha! I'm going to take every last dollar in this savings account for…orphan baby red pandas, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Hey, you're pretty good at this!" Judy broke character to give him a brief smile before returning to her stern scowl. "You mean ol' robber, the red panda orphanage needs that money or else it'll go out of business and all the baby red pandas will have to live in refrigerator boxes in alleyways! You give it back _right now!_ "

"Ha!" Nick stuck his tongue out at her. "You'll never catch me alive, cuz I'm getting in my getaway racecar!" He proceeded to dash around the yard, turning an imaginary wheel with his paws and making vrooming noises. Judy stared after him in dismay, her face falling into a pout.

"Oh yeah? Well…well I'm calling backup!" She proceeded to do just that with an imaginary walkie-talkie, and chased after him making siren noises.

"We've got you surrounded, mister!" she screamed, springing out in front of him. "You'd better surrender the money if you don't wanna go to jail!"

Nick dug his shoes in the grass to keep from running into her. He looked wildly around in mock panic before turning back to her and smirking. "Well, too bad my getaway racecar turns into a _rocket!_ " With one quick motion and the appropriate sound effects, Nick leapt onto the side of Judy's trampoline and wriggled in through the net.

"I'm on the moon now!" he called down in a singsong mocking voice. "And Imma build the greatest space mansion _ever_ and no one can do anything 'bout it!"

"You think you can get away that easy?" she taunted. "Betcha didn't know at police school they gave me a magic potion that gave me super strength, and I can jump all the way to the moon!"

She followed him onto the trampoline and proceeded to chase him around in circles, laughing and screaming. They both tumbled and bounded every which way, trying with little success to keep their footing on the springy surface. Every time Judy got anywhere close to Nick, he managed to bounce out of her reach at the last minute.

"You still can't touch me, officer!" he giggled. "This moon gravity is on my side!"

"Oh yeah?" she panted. "Well…good thing I brought my _space lasso!_ "

Nick looked back at the little rabbit, her purple eyes hard with determination as she swung the invisible rope around her head. Perhaps it was time to let her win.

"Ha! Gotcha!" she called out.

"Oh no! Not the space lasso! Anything but the space lasso!" Nick collapsed onto the trampoline, writhing dramatically while making choking noises and clutching at his neck.

Judy bounded over and smirked down at him, her hands on her hips. "Your days of robbin' banks are over, mister. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court!"

"Really? Can you even hold _this_ against me?" He stuck his fingers in his ears and made a long string of noises with his tongue, causing Judy to burst into a fit of giggles.

"Yeah, the judge will think you're a weirdo!" she huffed, after she had regained control of her laughter. "But come on, let's get you to court." She reached out a paw to help him up, but he shrunk away.

Upon seeing his hesitance, she gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, it's okay…it's gonna take way less than ten seconds for me to help you up!"

Nick shyly returned the smile, and reached out his paw. She gripped it and tugged him to his feet, hastily letting go as soon as he was standing.

 _This is great,_ he thought, gazing into her gleeful violet eyes. _I can tell Mama I made a friend today after all!_

"JUDY!"

The shrill voice nearby made both children freeze, turning nervously toward the source. A short-eared gray rabbit came bustling out of the back door of the house, followed by a wide-muzzled brown rabbit. The brown rabbit scowled as soon as he caught sight of Nick, while the gray rabbit's expression turned to one of alarm.

"Judy, what is this?" she demanded. "What are you doing with a _fox?_ "

"Oh, this is my new friend Nick, mom!" Judy exclaimed, sliding out of the trampoline netting and hopping down to face her parents. Nick followed more apprehensively, not meeting the two older rabbits' eyes. "He was walking by, and I invited him to play with me," she added enthusiastically.

Judy's mother was shaking her head, eyes filling with horror. "Sweetie, you can't play with a predator! Don't you know they can be dangerous?" The young rabbit responded with a look of utter bewilderment. "Quick, come inside," the mother rabbit said, rushing over and forcibly herding her daughter toward the door.

"But _Nick's_ not dangerous!" he heard Judy protest. She stole a despairing glance back at him, but her mother turned her head away. "Nonsense dear, you've only known him for a day. How would _you_ know?"

Nick watched in despair as his new friend was led away, letting out a final frustrated " _Mom!_ " before the door shut behind her.

Judy's father, who had been watching his wife and daughter leave, turned to glare at Nick. " _You!_ " he growled. "Get off of my property and stay away from my daughter!"

"B-but—" Nick stammered.

The brown rabbit took a threatening stride toward him. "I _said_ get out of here! Or do I need to call the police on you?"

Nick snatched up his backpack and scurried away, tail bushed out in fear. He crashed through the gate, nearly tripping over his own paws in a rush to get away.

"And don't come back!" the brown rabbit yelled after him. "Filthy little vermin fox!"

Nick kept running down the sidewalk, tears already starting to form in his green eyes. Perhaps this was still going to be the worst day of his life after all.

* * *

For the next several days Nick crossed the street when it came time to walk by Judy's house. He couldn't deny that he felt a prickle of longing when he thought of the feisty little rabbit who has almost been his friend, but it was far outweighed by the terror of her angry father. The way he had scowled at Nick was still seared in the back of the little fox's mind.

Nick kept telling himself that he was never going to set foot near that house again. But as the days rolled by and the fear of the big brown rabbit's booming voice became more and more distant, Nick's curiosity finally got the better of him. Making sure no one was around to see him, he crept toward Judy's fence, hoping he could peek inside and catch a glimpse of the little rabbit jumping on her trampoline or running around her yard or nibbling on veggies from her garden.

He wasn't entirely sure what he intended to do after that. Call out to her? Sneak back in and join her? Nah, chances were he'd simply watch her play for a while and then slink away like he was never there, feeling as lonesome and desolate as ever.

Unfortunately, Nick couldn't see Judy anywhere when he found a wide enough crack in her fence to peek through. And given the experience he had with her father, he wasn't inclined to look for a particularly long time. Tail drooping in disappointment, Nick skulked back to the sidewalk, trudging past the front of Judy's house and onward to his much less scenic neighborhood.

He was passing a bush on the far side of her neighbor's lawn when a noise slipped from it, making his ears perk up.

" _Pssssst!_ "

Nick took a step toward the bush, studying it curiously. Bushes generally didn't speak, to his knowledge, so this was an unusual one indeed.

A small gray head popped out, and Nick jumped back in surprise. The rest of the bunny followed, and she started striding toward him. Nick slowly backed away.

"Hi!" she said perkily. "I was hoping you'd come by this way again."

Nick eyed her fearfully. "Why are you talking to me?" he whimpered. "Your parents don't like me!"

"So what?" She crossed her arms defiantly. " _I_ like you!"

"But…" He rubbed the back of his head uneasily. "If they catch me talking to you, we're both prolly gonna be in trouble."

Judy grinned. "So we go where they can't catch us!"

Nick glanced anxiously around, looking for any sign of Judy's parents. "Like where? We can't go to my house because then my mama might wanna meet your parents, and then we'll be busted!"

"It's okay. I know just the place!"

Judy took off bounding down the path, leaving Nick struggling to catch up. She stopped in front of an enormous treehouse at the end of the next block, turning to grin triumphantly.

"It's been completely abandoned since the Squirrelburgs moved out," she explained. "It's the perfect place to play!" Before Nick had a chance to respond, she started scaling the ladder.

"Aren't your parents gonna wonder where you are?" he asked her as he hesitantly followed.

"Oh, I told them I was going over to my friend Sheila's house!" She turned to smirk at him. "And ya know, with eight brothers and sisters, they can't really keep a super close eye on me anyway. So I tell them I'm going to any friend's house and they can't be bothered to check. And I pretended I was all scared of you after you left, so they think I'm never gonna go talk to a fox again and they don't have to make me stay away."

"Wow." Nick's smile broadened as she turned away. "Sly bunny."

* * *

 **So this chapter in particular was kinda inspired by a part of Chapter 4 of The Fallen Chronicles by Jacato, which has Judy wanting to play with Nick when they're kids but then an adult flipping a bitch when he finds them playing. I wanted to do a similar scene, but…have a happier ending to it ^^;**

 **Honestly, it's a ton of fun to write kids playing games, largely because they just come up with the craziest shit on the fly and just go with it XD You can literally write the game going in any number of completely insane directions, and it's perfectly believable. Also probably partly because I'm always a bit nostalgic for those days myself…and I guess writing out kids' games is a way to relive them!**

 **I hope I didn't make Judy's dad TOO much of a jerk ^^; In my defense, he WAS pretty prejudice against foxes initially, and we never saw him interact with one when Judy was a kid…so who's to say he wouldn't have been this cruel? :/ Besides, in this AU, prejudice against predators is multiplied, like, tenfold, so that's another reason for Stu's excessive dickishness.**

 **Yay for Judy wanting to be Nick's friend anyway! Ah kids, so simpleminded and free of prejudice. This poor bunny just wanted a fun playmate and did not give an honest crap what species they were XD And heh, Nick is already calling Judy a sly bunny just a few days after they've met!**

 **Hmmm…when I read over this chapter again, it honestly felt a bit…compressed. I dunno, it just felt like the dialogue scenes ended too soon and Judy and Nick's sudden friendship was kinda rushed. Then again, they ARE kids, and kids don't exactly put a lot of thought into making friends, they just DO it XD And hey, I tend to have overly drawn-out dialogue scenes, so maybe making it a bit more clipped is better. I hope, anyway.**

 **Until next update!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 6**

 **Nick: 8**

* * *

"Niiiiick, come on, you can see all the way into the city from up here!"

Nick looked fretfully up at the chimney of the treehouse. Before he had been able to stop her, Judy had bounded up on top of the old barbecue pit standing beside one of the house's outside walls and hoisted her way onto the overgrown wooden slats that made up the roof. Now she had vanished behind the stone column and was who-knew-how-close to toppling off of the treehouse and falling to her imminent death about 50 feet below.

"Isn't that kinda dangerous?" he called out.

"Not if you don't get too close to the edge, dummy!" his friend yelled back, not seeming the least bit concerned. "The roof's not even that steep. I promise I won't let you slip!"

He looked at the roof, then back at the unquestioned safety of the platform, then back at the roof again, all the while indecisively rubbing his arm. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him and he clambered up after the bunny, a mischievous grin on his face. He could hear his mother's voice in his mind, scolding him for doing something so wild and precarious, but the closer he got to where Judy was sitting, the more the dread and guilt in his stomach became an exhilarating thrill.

He stepped past the chimney and took a seat next to Judy, realizing she had been right about the roof not being steep. It dipped gently away from them, being near flat for several feet before it dropped off. Once he had been reassured that he wouldn't tumble down to his demise at the slightest blunder, he followed Judy's purple gaze to the other roofs, stretching out in a vast grid before them and finally turning from uniform suburbs into the gleaming cityscape of downtown, the layered buildings curving and leaning into one another like a towering, peculiar breed of fungus.

"Whoa." Nick's playful grin turned into a full-on bean as he gazed at the spiraling buildings. He'd seen downtown before, of course, but never from a great enough distance to really appreciate the splendor of it.

"See?" Judy said triumphantly. "I knew you would like it!"

Nick smirked. "Ya know…sometimes I'm glad you talk me into breaking rules with you, Carrots."

Judy glared at him, crossing her arms. "I do _not!_ "

"Yeah-huh!" he argued. "You were like 'I'm gonna be friends with this fox even though my mommy and daddy told me not to!' And we're prolly not even allowed to be in this treehouse."

"We are too!" Judy retorted. "No one wants to live in a tree all the time 'cept squirrels, and they all live in Little Rodentia! If no one wants to live here, why can't we play here?"

Nick sniggered. "Grown-ups don't see stuff like that. They don't want us to play anywhere that isn't somebody's parent's house. Someday grown-ups are gonna come yell at us for playing here 'cuz they're bored and they want to make us follow their dumb rules."

"It's been two years and no grown-up's yelled at us," Judy pointed out. "We haven't gotten caught yet."

"See? So you admit if we _did_ get caught, we'd be in trouble!" He shoved her playfully. "You _are_ a rule-breaker!"

Judy glared at him. "No way!"

"Yes way!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

"But I don't wanna break rules!" She looked away from him, focusing her gaze on the city again. "See that building right there?" She pointed to a disc-shaped structure looking to be made of sandstone, with long windows running down the front and a stretch of grass growing on the roof. "I'm going to work there someday!" she declared.

Nick tilted his head to the side. "At the police station?"

"Yeah!" she replied, grinning. "I'm going to be the best police officer ever! And then I'm going to get everyone to _follow_ the rules!"

"But you'll have to stop _breaking_ all of them first," Nick teased. Judy glowered at him, looking genuinely insulted.

Despite himself, Nick felt the smallest prickle of guilt. The fox smiled meekly. "Oh well, I'm sure by the time you go to police school, we'll have already been yelled at for playing in this treehouse, and then we'll find a new playplace that the grown-ups are okay with, and then police school will let you in because you're not breaking any rules!"

Judy seemed to brighten at this. "Yeah, and then I can be the best cop ever! But what about you, Nick? What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

Nick considered the question for a few seconds. "Uh…well…I really want to be a Junior Ranger Scout! Is that a job?"

"Maybe!" Judy said. "I mean…you could be just a plain ol' Ranger Scout! Y'know, without the junior part, because you won't be a kid anymore."

"My mom said that next year, for my birthday, she's gonna finally get me a uniform so I can join the Junior Ranger Scouts," he went on excitedly. "And then I can work on becoming a _senior_ Ranger Scout…and then a grown-up Ranger Scout! It'll be awesome!"

A slight breeze picked up, and Nick closed his eyes, letting it waft through his dark orange fur. He imagined himself diving off of the roof and soaring over the houses, coming to glide among the twisting skyscrapers in the distance.

"I can't believe we're this high up," he said to Judy. "I feel like the Mighty Parrot up here!"

Judy gave him a perplexed look. "Who's the Mighty Parrot?"

"Only the greatest superhero _ever!_ " Nick gushed. "My mom just bought me this comic book all about him. See, everyone thinks he's a freak because he lives in Terramville, where there's only flightless birds, and he's all sad. But then Doctor Mango the evil kiwi captures him and feed him some sciencey birdseed to make him have super strength so he can be Doctor Mango's living weapon. But then he escapes and goes around fighting all these bad guys and saving the residents of Terramville because he's super strong and can fly!"

Judy gazed at him, rapt with interest. "Whoa, that sounds so cool!"

"Oh, and he also shoot lasers out of his eyes and can melt metal," Nick added.

"Let's go play it!"

Without warning, Judy jumped up and bounded off down the opposite side of the roof. Her paws clattered against the top of the barbecue pit as she leapt down onto the treehouse platform, wriggling into a window that led to the house's main room. Feeling giddy with excitement at the prospect of getting to be the Mighty Parrot, Nick was right behind his friend.

As soon as they were in the front room, Judy's expression turned to the familiar play-scowl that signaled the game had started.

"You let those innocent penguins go, Doctor Mango!" she declared. "Don't you dare zap them with your evil death ray! I'm the Mighty Parrot and I'll—"

"Wait, wait, _wait!_ " Nick crossed his arms and glared at his friend. She gave him a perplexed look.

"Why do I always have to be the bad guy?" he complained.

"I don't always make you be the bad guy!" she retorted.

"Yeah-huh! I'm always either the bank robber, or the gangster, or the mad scientist, or the evil professor, or the nasty king no one likes!"

"Oh." Judy looked away guiltily. "I guess I just really like playing the hero."

"Can't I be the hero for once?" he muttered.

"But predators are usually the villains," Judy said innocently. "In the movies and stuff. Where they've taken their shock collars off so no one can stop them from doing anything bad." The fox winced.

Nick looked hurt, much to Judy's bewilderment. "Do you think _I'm_ a villain?"

"No," she said quickly. "You're really nice and you're my friend!"

"So stop making me be the bad guy all the time," he huffed. "We don't have to follow the movies, ya know. They're really stupid to always make the predators the bad guys."

The rabbit blinked a couple times, as if trying to take the idea in. "You're right," she said finally. "It _is_ pretty dumb. Predators aren't always mean like that. Okay, we can switch it up. I'll be Doctor Mango and you can be the Mighty Parrot."

"Yay!" Nick's tail whipped back and forth excitedly.

Judy broke into an evil cackle. "Ah, Mighty Parrot, we meet once again! Come back to your master to finally accept your destiny as my _murder slave?_ "

"Never!" Nick growled. "I'll never submit to the likes of you, you buttface!"

Judy gasped. "How _dare_ you call me a buttface, you disrespectful rainbow-feathered fool! I gave you powers, and this is how you repay me?"

"You only gave me powers so I can go do evil stuff with you, and I'm not an evil parrot!" Nick retorted.

"Well, fine! If you won't return to your creator voluntarily, then I'll just have to _zap_ this group of penguin children with my death ray until you agree! Preparing to fire…"

Judy pretended to be aiming a death ray, laughing wickedly the entire time. Nick made a buzzing noise and smirked.

"Ha! I was able to change the direction of your death ray with my laser vision, and it zapped a bunch of your emu minions instead!"

Judy put a paw over her mouth. "No, not my emu minions!" She turned to glower at him. "Now you've done it, Mighty Parrot! I'm going to go get my bigger death ray shooter and zap you _and_ the penguin children! And then there will only be blood, blood, _blood_ , and…death!"

Despite himself, Nick broke character briefly to grin at the way she was dramatically pantomiming imaginary streams of blood gushing from her chest. It was beyond adorable.

He pressed his face into a scowl again. "There won't be any blood and death if I get there first!" Nick took off across the room toward the imaginary death ray shooter, and Judy raced after him.

"Ha! Got it!" The young fox held the invisible contraption over his head triumphantly. The rabbit let out an enraged squeak and dived at him. Nick took off across the room, leaving her chasing after him.

Suddenly, a dislodged board caught one of Nick's back paws, and he went toppling to the floor with an ungraceful "Uff!" Judy strode over to stand over him, smirking triumphantly.

" _I'll_ take that, thanks," she giggled, tugging the imaginary death ray shooter out of his paws.

"No!" Nick wailed. "The penguins!"

He scrambled to his paws and hurried after her. "I'll bet you didn't know I am a great kung fu fighter, Doctor Mango!" Once he was about 2 feet away, he threw a hard punch at her face. The bunny looked alarmed as he hit the air in front of her, but seemed to relax when she realized that he wasn't coming close enough to actually hurt her.

And why would he, of course? They couldn't fight, even if it was just play-fighting, for any length of time before his collar went off, she realized.

The two friends fell into a strange air fight, throwing punches and kicks at the empty air, but never getting close enough to actually hurt each other. As the fight grew more intense, they began to circle each other, spinning around and sometimes somersaulting and flipping and backing away from each other as they pretended to hurt each other.

Suddenly, Nick leapt off to the side and grabbed at the floor, smirking as he turned back to Judy.

"Time to give up, evil Doctor Mango! I have your death ray, and I will not hesitate to blast you with it if you don't surrender!"

Judy's sides were heaving, the little bunny clearly exhausted from the pretend fight. She opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again, her face falling into a pout. "Fine," she panted. "I surrender. _For now._ "

"Great! I'm going to go free all the penguins now."

Nick went to where the corral full of penguin children was implied to be, and opened the gate. He imagined their gleeful screams as they raced out, off to find whatever penguin chaperone they had lost in the first place.

"I'm hungry," Judy complained.

Nick had to admit that between the running, punching, kicking, and dramatic leaps, he was pretty hungry too. He had an idea, although he wasn't sure Judy would like it.

"We could go to my house," he suggested. "My mom just bought a whole bunch of cinnamon teddy grahams and cheese puffs and pretzel goldfish."

Judy's nose twitched anxiously, and Nick could understand why. In the two years they had known each other, they had always played in the treehouse and Judy had never met Nick's mother. The two had agreed that it wasn't worth the risk of her telling Judy's parents their daughter's whereabouts. But now, with both of their stomachs growling and the fresh groceries in Nick's pantry sounding more and more appealing, the risk suddenly seemed negligible.

"Look, ah…I've been thinking about it for a while, and I don't think my mom is gonna tell your parents that we're friends if I ask her not to. She can keep a secret."

"But grown-ups will blab anything to each other!" Judy protested.

"Hey, my mom'll just be happy I have such a good friend," Nick reassured her. "She's not gonna tattle on you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, 'cuz she knows how hard it is for foxes to make friends, and if she goes and gabs to your parents that we're hanging out, they'll try to keep us apart and then I'll be alone again. And my mom doesn't want me to be alone again."

Judy had to admit her friend's reasoning made sense, even if the thought of her father's face contorting with rage at the thought of her spending time with a fox made her shudder.

"All right," she said hesitantly. "If you're sure…"

"Positive!" he replied cheerfully.

They descended the ladder of the treehouse and set off toward Nick's house with the fox confidently leading the way. Gradually, the houses began to grow less neat and polished and more worn-down, outer paint chipped off and yards weedy and overgrown. The neat picket fences bordering the backyards turned to rickety chain-link ones.

Judy looked around with barely concealed apprehension, never having walked so far from her house before. Predator children were playing in the front lawns of several of the houses, indicating this was mostly a predator neighborhood. For a reason she couldn't quite explain, this made her a bit nervous.

Judy took a step toward Nick so that she was walking closer to him. She found that she felt safe with the fox, no matter how many other predators were around.

Nick walked down the pathway of a one-story cement house. On the porch, he reached up and pulled the door handle down before pushing the door open.

Judy had been hoping beyond hope that Mrs. Wilde would be out running errands, or at least in a different room so that she and her friend could sneak some food without her seeing Judy. But no such luck; not only was Mrs. Wilde in the house, she was in the very front room, sweeping the floor.

As soon as Judy locked gazes with the older fox, any trepidation that the bunny might have had about meeting her friend's mother dissolved. Mrs. Wilde had pretty chartreuse eyes that looked to be a lighter version of her son's, and as soon as they fell on Judy, they shone with a flurry of warmth and delight. Like Nick, she wore a thick leather collar with a small box containing a blinking green light attached. But Judy barely noticed.

"Mom…uh…I brought a friend home," Nick started awkwardly.

"That's wonderful, Nick!" Mrs. Wilde exclaimed, keeping her gaze fixed on the rabbit. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Judy," she answered, finding herself smiling broadly at the older fox.

"She's from a few blocks away," Nick explained. "But we can't tell her mom and dad she's here, okay? They don't like foxes very much, and she'd be in big trouble if they found out she was playing with one! But I don't wanna hafta stop being friends with her or anything!"

"Ah." Mrs. Wilde's eyes glistened sadly. "I understand." She squatted down and smiled kindly at Judy. "Well, Judy, it's a pleasure to have you over. And you're always more than welcome at our house, all right? It will always be our little secret that you're here."

"So you promise you won't call my parents?" Judy asked anxiously.

Mrs. Wilde chuckled good-naturedly. "I promise, dear. Just so long as you get home at a decent hour! I wouldn't want your mother and father worrying their tails off about you."

Judy nodded eagerly. "Okay!"

She decided against telling the older fox that her parents were under the completely untrue impression that she had been at book club all afternoon. Perhaps it was better that Mrs. Wilde was under the impression that she had simply been vague with her parents about her whereabouts instead of outright lying about them.

"Can I go get Judy some food?" Nick asked.

"Yes, yes, of course, dear," Mrs. Wilde said quickly, waving a paw dismissively. "You two go and have fun. I've got my chores to get back to."

Nick led her to the pantry, where there were indeed fresh bags of cinnamon teddy grahams, cheese puffs, and pretzel goldfish. Once Nick had poured his friend and himself a bowl of each, they sat at the kitchen table, munching happily.

"Do you ever get to take your collar off?" Judy asked suddenly. For some reason, she was under the impression that the predators got to take their collars off once they reached adulthood—she didn't encounter any adult predators in her day-to-day life, and so didn't have evidence that that _wasn't_ the case. However, seeing a collar on the fully-grown Mrs. Wilde had just proved her inclination wrong.

Nick paused mid-munch, caught off-guard. He gazed at her in surprise for a few seconds before mumbling "no" around a mouthful of pretzel goldfish.

"So what's the buckle at the back for?" she wondered aloud. "Seems like if the animals in charge didn't want you to get out of the collar, they wouldn't have provided such an easy way for you to do it. Couldn't they superglue it shut or something?"

Nick's paw drifted up to the back of his collar and hovered over the buckle before it fell down again.

"I think my mom told me that police can take them off under super special circumstances and stuff. I asked what they were and she said no one really knows except police."

Judy's eyes lit up. "Hey! When I become a cop someday, I'll find out what the circumstances are, and then I'll tell you so you can put yourself in them and then I can finally take your collar off!"

Nick smirked. "Well, I'd probably have to be in reeeeaaaally big trouble before you got to take my collar off. And even then, you'd have to put it back on."

"Well…not before I could finally give you a really big hug!"

Partly against his will, Nick's smirk bent into a grateful smile. "Well, I'd like that, Carrots. If the whole thing didn't probably mean I was going to jail forever."

"You don't go to jail _forever_ , silly!" Judy retorted. "That's _prison_. And when I'm a cop, I'm not gonna let anyone send you to prison, ever."

Nick found his thoughts straying to his father, being dragged across his front lawn and stuffed into a cop car, all the while yelling that he hadn't been involved in the store robberies. He remembered the car screeching away, sirens blaring, taking his father to someplace he would never see him again.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that," he muttered bitterly.

Judy's ears drooped, the young rabbit seemingly stung by his tone. "Well, I don't know if I'll be able to _stop_ them, but I'll try really hard! But you also have to not do anything illegal so they can't arrest you, okay?"

Nick's ear twitched in irritation, but he forced a smile. "Okay, Carrots."

Judy popped a pawful of teddy grahams into her mouth, chewing and swallowing before speaking again.

"So…what happens if _you_ try to take your collar off? Or someone who's not a cop?"

"Oh, well, there's a tracker in the little box thing, and it sends a signal to the nearest police station. Then, the cops come and arrest whoever took the collar off."

"Can't you just make a run for it?" Judy asked. "So when they get there, there's just a collar?"

"Well, yeah, but the police have detectives that can track you down and stuff. And with a pred without a shock collar just wandering around, it's not that hard to tell who the collar belongs to."

"But if _another_ animal took it off, they could get away with it?"

"Yeah, I guess, if they ran. And the whole thing would just get blamed on the predator."

"Oh." Judy looked downcast. "So I guess you really _are_ stuck with it forever."

"Yeah." He forced another smile. "But it's not that bad. It doesn't hurt or anything. And as long as I don't touch you or any other prey, nothing bad can happen, right?"

Judy smiled back, although sadness glimmered in her amethyst eyes. "Right."

* * *

 **Okay, it's official! Updates will be once every 2 weeks, every other Wednesday! I decided on this because a) I couldn't be bothered to update last week and b) I'm going to have a VERY busy quarter at college and it's extra stress to try and edit a whole part per week! Especially if I decide to do any rewriting and such. I'm sorry it's not as frequent as it might have been, but that just makes updates all the more exciting, amirite? XD**

 **I'm sorry about whatever keeps happening with the preview pic! It's supposed to be young Nick in a shock collar, but for whatever reason keeps deleting it and replacing it with my avatar. Ugh! Maybe if I get snippy enough I'll email the site about it.**

 **For your convenience, I've started providing their ages at the top! I meant to do that last chapter, but I completely spaced and forgot. Went back and fixed it, though! Makes it MUCH easier to contextualize what goes on in each part.**

 **For whatever reason, I headcanon that as kids, Judy was the more adventurous and daring one who was willing to break the rules and Nick was the more cautious, timid, rule-abiding one XD And then it kinda switched when they got older, with Judy being the one to want to enforce rules and Nick finding ways around them XD But Judy is still pretty impulsive and daring and Nick is still fairly cautious in regards to not being willing to jump right into things.**

 **Oh dear. We all know how the whole Junior Ranger Scout shebam is gonna end. Let's just enjoy these brief moments when the poor kid gets to be excited about being a scout! And let's also make fun of these dumb kids who think being a Junior Ranger Scout is a legit job XD**

 **Yay, birds in Zootopia! I thought this was kind of an interesting idea, so I decided to play around with it. Actually surprisingly difficult to come up with a brief yet interesting-sounding superhero comic book synopsis, but here we are.**

 **Careful there Judy, your prejudice is showing! I dunno, I feel like even as a kid she would have a bit of "institutionalized racism" if you will drilled into her by her family and the media. But due to her childhood friendship with Nick, she realizes it's wrong a LOT sooner than her canon counterpart!**

 **Once again, a very fun time writing kid's games XD These kids and their death rays, I swear!**

 **Yay for snack foods chosen completely at random! No really, I just jotted down what I was hungry for at the moment. Heh, let's assume all these foods exist in the Zootopia universe.**

 **Oh Judy, you're so sweet that you're going to give all of us diabetes! Gotta love how naïve she is, though. If only you could exempt your friends from going to prison, right?**

 **So there's some exposition in this chapter that will be super important later on, so I hope you paid attention XD**

 **And lastly, thank you all so much for all the nice reviews! This fanfic actually received a MUCH better turnout than I expected, and I'm so happy about that :D Your support is very much appreciated, friends!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 7**

 **Nick: 9**

* * *

 _Why won't this stupid thing come off?_

There were about a thousand thoughts flying through Nick's head as he sat in a crumpled heap outside of the Junior Ranger Scouts building, but that was the one that seemed to dominate as he clawed helplessly at the muzzle fastened around his snout. He tried again and again to pull it off, only to have it snap painfully back into his face.

With every laugh drifting out of the still-open door he cringed, as if they were drops of acid landing in his fur and stinging his skin. Giving up on the muzzle, he leaned his back against the stairs and slid down to the ground, feeling his eyes grow hot. A new thought slithered to the front of his mind.

 _What did I do wrong?_

What did he do wrong on the first day of kindergarten so that everyone had kicked them out of their games? What did he do wrong so that Judy's father had yelled at him and practically chased him out of their backyard? What did he do wrong so that he had only been able to make one real friend, and she didn't even go to his school? What did he do wrong to make a group of kids he didn't even know _put a muzzle on him?_

The tears came hard and fast as he admitted to himself that the answer was what he had known all along. Something he tried so hard to block out and forget but something that haunted him wherever he went, whatever he did.

What he did wrong was being a fox. What he did wrong was being born as something he couldn't help.

And he was going to do that wrong for the rest of his life.

He broke into soft sobs, burying his face in his paws. All those years of anticipation, all those years of his mother saving her money for him…and for what?

No one was ever going to see him as anything other than a deceitful fox.

"Nick!"

Well, maybe one animal was.

Nick didn't think there was any voice he would have rather heard in that moment. He looked up at its owner, wiping his wet face with the back of his paw. As she bounded toward him, he rested his paw over his nose, blocking his muzzle from sight.

"Judy?" he sniffled. "What are you doing here?"

The plan, inane as it seemed now, was for Nick's mother to come and pick him up after the induction, and then for Judy to meet him at his house afterwards. But it seemed the little 7-year-old bunny had tromped all the way into the city by herself, finding him outside the Junior Ranger Scouts building at precisely the ideal moment.

"I was really excited for you, and I couldn't wait to see you, so I decided to come and see you right after you finished getting inducted!"

Despite himself, Nick smiled. He had to admire the little bunny's determination, finding her way through the city to the Junior Ranger Scout building with no adult supervision at all. Not that it surprised him, seeing as Judy had made a point to memorize the layout of the city and figure out how to get from any street to any other street, as part of her "training as a future cop."

Her bright expression turned to one of heavy concern as she saw his damp eyes. "What happened, Nick?" He sniffed in response.

"What did they do to you?" She automatically reached out a paw to touch his arm before pulling quickly away. After a short hesitation, she placed her paw on his arm for a few seconds. Her eyes widened as he pulled his other paw away from his nose, revealing the wire netting.

"They put that on you?"

He nodded. "Said they'd never trust a fox without a muzzle."

Judy's eyes suddenly glowed with a fury more intense than Nick would ever have expected from a little bunny. "I can't believe they would do that!" she spat. "They had no right! You never did anything to them, and then they just…treat you like an enemy? But here…let me get this off of you." She reached toward him, but he ducked away instinctually. She looked at him pleadingly. "Come on, I'll be quick, okay?"

Reluctantly, he let her reach out and gently tug the leather straps over his ears and off of his face. She flung the muzzle down the sidewalk in disgust before looking back at Nick and smiling tenderly. "There. Now you look like you."

Her purple gaze found the door at the top of the stairs, and her face contorted in fury again. She balled her furry fists, looking fully ready to absolutely ruin anyone who walked out.

"I swear when I'm older, I'll…I'll arrest every last one of them!" From the way her tiny claws were braced and her teeth were bared, it looked like she was willing to do more than just that.

Nick couldn't help but be taken aback. He had never seen his friend this angry. She was passionate, sure, but never had he seen her so willing to _tear someone apart_. Nick had no doubt that if one of the ranger scouts walked out of the building, Judy would be on them like a savage, all teeth and claws and angry screams and no self-control.

Nick admitted he might have been a little scared of her, if her anger hadn't been for his sake.

"Where are they now?" she growled.

"Induction doesn't end for another 45 minutes," he told her.

"I'll wait until they come out, and then I'll—"

Nick sighed, his discouragement slowly trickling back. "What are you going to do, Judy? They're all bigger than us. We can't hurt them. And if we try to _tell_ them to stop being mean, they'll laugh at us again! We can't…" He took a shaky breath. "We can't let them see that they get to us."

"But maybe if we tell their parents, they'll—"

"Why would they believe us?" Nick interrupted her. "They'd think I made the whole thing up, and then got you to believe it because you're just another dumb bunny. After all, foxes _always_ lie, don't they?" He turned away bitterly.

"Nick, that's not true," she protested.

He turned back to her. "Can we just go?" His eyes were pleading, his voice broken and defeated.

She looked at him in puzzlement. "Where to?"

"Doesn't matter. I just want to get away from here."

Judy blinked. "Okay."

Judy pulled Nick to his feet and they started down the sidewalk. It was a strange sight, two young animals loping along with no adult supervisor in sight, but the pair walked close together, ready to protect each other if any strangers gave them trouble.

A little ways down the road, Nick turned into an alleyway, and Judy followed. Once they were a ways away from the pedestrian traffic of the main sidewalk, they slumped down together next to a trash can.

"I don't think foxes are liars, and anyone who does is just a poopyhead," she said. "But…" Judy felt slight frustration bubble up inside her at Nick's earlier remark. "I am _not_ a dumb bunny!"

The fox looked a little flustered, rubbing the back of his head with his paw. "No, no, I didn't mean _I_ think you're dumb or anything. I just meant that's how _they_ wanna see you. Same way they wanna see me as a tricky fox and stuff. That's just how animals are."

"Hey…don't be like that." Judy smiled softly at him. "We have to be more than what they expect. Ya know, to prove them wrong."

Nick sighed. "What's the point, though? They're not gonna change."

"Okay, so maybe not," Judy admitted. "But who cares about them? They're just a bunch of dumb bullies. You don't have to listen to anything they say. _I_ think predators can be junior ranger scouts too!"

Nick's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Judy nodded encouragingly. "And you know what?"

"What?"

"We can start our very _own_ Junior Ranger Scout troop! Just you an' me! No one there to tell us what we can and can't be. How does that sound?"

The young fox gave her the smallest of smiles. "Th—that sounds great."

"And _none_ of those jerks are allowed in!" she added fervently, pointing a quivering furry finger back toward the Junior Ranger Scouts building. "Only predators and prey who aren't big, fat meanies are allowed to join!"

"Thanks, Judy." He smiled gratefully, although his face quickly fell again. He buried his face in his knees, letting out another loud sniff.

Judy fidgeted where she sat, trying to think of a way to make her friend come out of his slump. "Hey, um, there's that ice cream place right down the street, we could ask your mom—"

He cut her off. "What if they were right about me?"

Judy stared at him, the question catching her off-guard. "Why would they be right about you?"

"Maybe I am dangerous," he muttered. "Why else would I have to wear this?" He pawed at his collar, looking down at it fearfully.

"But don't _all_ predators hafta wear that dumb thing?"

"Yeah, but why would they if there wasn't a good _reason?_ Maybe we're all just naturally dangerous or something. They can't trust any of us without—without muzzles."

Judy considered what he said for a few seconds before her expression turned to one of seething anger. "Well, _you_ don't need a shock collar."

Before he could stop her, the little bunny reached forward and yanked his collar around, setting to work undoing the buckle. He tried to jerk away, but she held fast.

"Judy, what are you doing?" he hissed. "It's illegal to take these things off! The police are gonna hunt us down!"

"Yeah, and what are they gonna do? Put us in juvie?" She paused in her fidgeting to smirk at him. "We're _kids_ , Nick. We'll just give them puppy-dog eyes and play dumb and pretend we didn't know we were doing anything wrong."

"But then wouldn't our parents get in trouble?"

"Well, maybe, but…look, grown-ups know kids do dumb things. We'll just say we didn't know any better or we forgot them telling us not to take your collar off or something. 'Sides, I'll get it back on before they show up."

She went back to undoing the buckle, and yanked the shock collar off in one fluid motion. The rabbit look tempted to fling it away the same way she had with the muzzle, but opted for simply putting it down beside them and shoving it harshly away with a back paw so as not to damage it.

Without warning, Judy flung herself onto him, wrapping her tiny arms tightly around his waist and burying her face in the green fabric of his scout outfit. Nick's entire body automatically tensed up, but he relaxed when it finally sank in that there was no shock coming. The tension left his muscles, and he pulled Judy even closer.

They weren't sure how long they lay in that alleyway, tangled up in each other, running their paws through one another's fur. Both of them had the strange realization that this was probably the first and last time that they would ever get to hug their best friend, and for that reason, they were in no hurry to pull away from one another.

The sound of police sirens approaching after several minutes caused both of them to start, pulling them out of their trance. Judy's ears shot straight up, and she let out a whimper.

As she pulled away from Nick, her heart began to speed up in panic. She didn't _actually_ think the police would bother hunting them down. Surely they had better things to do?

And yet, here they were.

Judy snatched up Nick's collar and fastened it back around his neck in one hasty motion.

She found herself idly hoping that the sirens weren't for them, but the metallic wailing drawing ever closer seemed to be proving that wrong. Judy could hear it mixed with the loud engine of a car right outside of the alleyway.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to force herself to be calm.

 _Okay, Judy. Remember what you told Nick. We can get out of this. Just play up the innocence._

No matter that she had only halfheartedly said all that in an attempt to get him out of his collar, without thinking she'd actually _need_ it.

Judy took a deep breath and puffed herself up to look as big as she could. It didn't take long for her courage to wither and die as soon as she saw an enormous, uniformed elk storming down the alley, glowering murderously at the two quivering children. A few more cops followed behind, tall and stern and everything that Judy wanted to be someday, but also everything that she didn't want to face right now.

She instinctively stepped protectively in front of Nick, although her nose was quivering and her foot was starting to thump anxiously against the ground.

"What's going on here?" the elk roared, looming over them. "We got a signal saying this _fox_ took off his government-issued collar! Don't you know that's a federal _crime_ , you little—"

"Officer please!" Judy whimpered. "I was the one who took it off! But then Nick told me I wasn't s'posed to, so I put it back on!"

The elk glared down at her. "Why would you want to take it off? Don't you know he could _hurt_ you without it?"

"But he wouldn't," Judy insisted. "He's my friend! He was just having a really bad day and I wanted to give him a hug." She sniffled, pretending to wipe away a tear. "Don't be mad at Nick. I know I wasn't supposed to, but I felt—"

" _Wasn't supposed to?_ You broke a damn law!"

"I didn't mean to do anything bad," she sobbed. "I just wanted to make him feel better."

"Do you have _any_ idea how serious this is? I could have both of our parents sent to jail! I could—"

" _Prongston!_ "

A sharp voice cut in, and Judy turned to see a slender zebra cop shoving her way out of the throng of officers. She clomped up to the elk and gave him a look that could burn holes through his antlered head.

"For God's sake, they're _kids!_ " she snapped. "Can't you go easy on them?"

"Yeah, kids who broke the federal law, Longmane!"

"Well, they probably didn't know any better," the zebra officer retorted.

"Their parents should've _told_ them better! Especially _his_ parents." The elk pointed disdainfully at Nick.

"Would you relax?" she hissed. "The bunny said the fox told her he couldn't have it off, so she put it back on. Christ, it was just an innocent mistake. Here, let me talk to them."

She practically shoved her colleague out of the way and kneeled down so that she was at the same level as them. Even with the much-gentler zebra looking her over, Judy could still feel her nose twitching.

"What's your name?"

"J—Judy Hopps, ma'am."

"Now I know that you were just trying to cheer your friend up, and there's nothing wrong with that," the zebra said softly. "I, for one, don't think all predators need shock collars…but I enforce the laws, not make them. And if I start making exceptions for you, I have to make them for everyone. Do you understand, Judy?"

Judy nodded.

The zebra sighed. "I don't mean to scare you, Judy, but breaking a law like this isn't a small matter, even for someone your age. If you do it again, the police department might have to issue consequences for your parents. But for now, I think it's perfectly fine to let you off with a warning. You'll have to promise me you won't take a predator's collar off again, though."

The bunny nodded vigorously. "I promise, officer."

"Well, good." The zebra smiled, giving her a small pat on the shoulder. "No harm done, then!" She looked at both of them. "Where are your parents?"

Nick glanced at Judy, not wanting to get her in trouble for walking through the city to find him. "My mama was meant to pick us up after my Junior Ranger Scouts induction, but then the other Scouts wouldn't let me get inducted and chased me out so now I'm just waiting for her to come and get me when the ceremony's over."

"I see." The zebra nodded. "Why don't you go back and wait for her by the Junior Ranger Scouts building? It's not safe for a couple kids to be walking around the city alone."

Judy nodded. "Okay!"

"Would you like me to escort you there?"

Judy glanced back at Nick, who gave her the tiniest shake of his head. She nodded, understanding why the fox wouldn't want his mother showing up to find a gaggle of police officers with her son.

"I think we'll be okay," Judy said. "Thank you, officer."

As the zebra stood up, she smiled down at them. "Why don't you try something else to cheer him up? Maybe you can get his mother to take you two to Mrs. Frizzie's Ice Cream? It's right down the street, and it's owned by a wolf, so they don't have a problem serving predators."

She turned to Nick. "And I do hope you feel better. Please don't let your worth be defined by what some low-life bullies think of you. I was once told that I couldn't be a cop because my fur was too striking…too easy to spot when I was trying to lie low. And yet here I am!" She shrugged, smiling broadly. "This is Zootopia, where anyone can be anything they want. And I believe you can too, despite what's around your neck."

"Let's _go_ , Longmane," the elk growled. "We're cops, not therapists. And he's just a conniving little fox, anyway." Nick cringed, and Judy balled her fists.

"Shut up!" the zebra snapped. "The kid's already had a shit day without you making it worse."

"We should go, though," a wildebeest put in shyly. "The chief wants us back at the station."

"All right." The zebra nodded. The group of cops began to walk away, and the zebra shot the two children one last look over her shoulder. "Have a nice day! But from now on, keep the collars _on_."

As soon as the sirens of the police cars had faded into the distance, Judy stood up, turning her paws back toward the Junior Ranger Scours building. She smirked triumphantly at Nick.

"See? Told you they'd let us off easy!"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Pretty sure they only did because you were there, Carrots. You can sweet-talk your way out of anything. You're a good actor, ya know."

"I wasn't acting," she assured him. "I actually _was_ pretty scared. But I was willing to take it for you."

"Thanks." He smiled gratefully. "But…let's not do that again, okay? I feel like next time, we'll get in really, really, _really_ big trouble."

Judy smiled back with a shrug. "Okay, that's fair. I think you needed that hug, though. Now let's go find your mom."

* * *

 **WELL, HERE IT IS**

 **THE SCENE WE ALL WANTED REALLY BADLY WHEN WE WATCHED THE JUINOR RANGER SCOUTS SCENE FOR THE FIRST TIME**

 **Well, maybe without the cops, but you get what I mean XD**

 **Honestly writing this scene made me feel so much better about the shitty thing that happened to Nick. Augh, why couldn't Judy have been thereeeee D: All he needed was a friend, goddammit!**

 **BUT DAMMIT JUDY, DON'T TAKE THAT COLLAR OFF, YOU FOOL!**

 **For those of you like "What?! Judy would never break a law, especially young!Judy!", hear me out! She's always been pretty impulsive and is very much a do-now-and-think-later kind of gal, and also she seems like someone who very much has a screw-the-rules-I'm-doing-what's-right mindset. I mean, don't forget she got in trouble with Bogo for abandoning her post and running off to do what SHE thought was the right thing! So that's my justification for her taking Nick's collar off. That, and she's just really fuckin pissed off at him starting to believe what the scouts were saying about him and she wanted to give him some much-needed physical affection.**

 **Fun fact: I made the good cop a zebra because zebras are my favorite and I was kind of disappointed that the only major zebra character in Zootopia was one of the shitty kids who bullied Nick! So here you go, some more balanced zebra representation XD**

 **Until next update, friends! And, once again, thank you for all your reviews and support! It really does mean the world to me :D I was so insecure about this fic and was having second thoughts about even posting it, because I thought people would think it was too cliché or tacky or something. So I was absolutely delighted when it got so much positive feedback! Thank you again!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 9**

 **Nick: 11**

* * *

"I swear, I'll _kill_ him!"

Nick was trembling with what could only be described as unbridled fury as he looked down at Judy's crumpled form, her paw still clutching her scratched cheek and tears still pooling in her violet eyes.

This is how he had found her when he went to meet her in their usual spot in the treehouse. He had been beside her in an instant the moment he figured out something was wrong, and she had tearfully told him the story of how Gideon Grey had scratched her right across the face when she tried to stand up to him and try to get him to give her friends' tickets back.

"I didn't want my parents to see me like this," she sobbed. "They think I'll never be tough enough to be a cop, but…but I have to show them I _am_ tough, and tough bunnies don't get held down and scratched."

Nick reached out a paw to put on her arm, but quickly pulled it back. He looked away, trying to think of what to say.

"Hey, that's not true," he said finally. "You don't have to win every fight to be tough. I think the fact that you took a scratch in the face for your friends makes you pretty damn tough!"

Judy seemed to brighten at this. "You…you really think I'm tough?"

"Yeah!" he grinned. "Tough as plastic. You know, the super durable kind that doesn't decompose for like 1000 years? That's you. You can make it through anything."

She smiled up at him before sniffling and curling into herself again. "He said…he said I could never be a real cop."

At this comment Nick bristled, green eyes growing steely and claws working angrily on the wooden slats below him. If he hadn't wanted to destroy Gideon Grey before, he certainly did now. It was bad enough that he had clawed his friend in the face just for standing up for her friends, but it struck a whole new nerve that he would dare to put down her lifelong dream just to add salt to the wound.

"He _said_ that?" Nick snarled.

Judy nodded. "Said I'd only ever be a dumb bunny."

"What does _he_ know? He's just a stupid little asshole who thought he had to make you feel like crap to feel better about himself! I'll bet he has no idea what he wants to do with his life, and he's just jealous you've actually got a plan. Don't you dare let him get to you, Carrots!"

"But…he…" She let out another sniff. "He pinned me down so _easily_. If another kid can just throw me down like that, how am I s'posed to stop bad guys when they're way bigger than me?"

"They're gonna train you," Nick reminded her. "Besides, tranquilizer darts! Carrots, I'm telling you, this kid is just some empty-headed jerk. Don't take anything he says to heart."

He leaned in and inspected Judy's wound. It wasn't bleeding particularly badly, but the cuts looked deep. He reached out and touched it gently, and she winced.

"Where does he live, anyway?" he snarled. "I swear, I'll go right to his house and _shred_ him!"

Judy couldn't help but smile at her friend's protectiveness. "Well, I appreciate that, but I honestly think the electric shock was punishment enough."

"Oh." Nick blinked in surprise. "He's a predator?" For some reason, he had been envisioning Gideon Grey as another bunny.

"A fox, actually."

Nick felt his stomach drop.

"So he got shocked?"

"Yeah, the whole holding-down-and-scratching thing took more than ten seconds. He got zapped as soon as he finished scratching me. I guess this is one of those few cases where a predator actually _needs_ a shock collar."

Nick fidgeted uncomfortably. "What do you mean, _needs?_ "

Judy replied with a puzzled look. "Well, that's what the collars are for, aren't they? To stop predators from getting too aggressive. And that's what Gideon was doing."

"Yeah, but a bunny or a sheep or a goat could've done something like that too. Why does the fact that Gideon Grey's a predator have anything to do with it?"

"Well sure, prey animals can be jerks," Judy interjected quickly. "But I guess since Gideon's a predator, he's just more _likely_ to—"

"What?" Nick snapped. "What are predators more likely to do?"

Judy winced, her eyes widening. There was a tense silence.

"…be mean?" she squeaked out finally.

She realized how screwed up the words sounded as soon as they left her mouth.

His ears drooped. "So you think _I'm_ more likely to be mean just because I'm a fox?"

"N—no, not you! I mean, not _all_ predators are more likely to be mean. Just a lot of them. That's why they have the shock collars."

"That's not true!" Nick retorted. "I know lots of really nice predators! And prey animals can be huge jerks just as much as predators can. What about the ranger scouts?"

"Oh." Judy looked away, the image of her friend huddled against a wall with a muzzle strapped to his face flooding into her mind.

"You don't think…" Nick bit his lip. "You don't think _I'm_ going to hurt you now, do you?"

"No, no, you would never! You're my best friend. I just don't know about _other_ predators…"

"So you think that just because there's a few nasty predators, we should _all_ have to wear collars?" Nick huffed. "I guess by that logic, we should put shock collars on all the prey animals too to stop the mean ones from acting up!"

"Oh. I never thought about it that way." Judy ran a paw across her own neck, imagining the tough fabric of a collar beneath it. "But…what would trigger the collars to go off? Not touching another prey animal…then family couldn't even touch each other!"

"I don't know!" Nick growled. "Look, that's not the point. Just because one predator picked on you doesn't mean we all deserve to wear these stupid things around. Not that Gideon wasn't being a huge jerk, but still…"

"But if he hadn't had that collar one, he mighta done worse!" Judy cried.

"Well, I guess you're just really lucky that the kid who was bullying you happened to have a shock collar on," Nick muttered. "I never had that luxury."

He looked away bitterly, tail swishing dejectedly back and forth across the wooden floor slats. Judy bit her lip, stomach suddenly twisting with guilt.

Standing up, she walked over to sit down beside him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean that I thought _all_ predators should have to wear shock collars. I just think…I mean, life would be easier if mean bullies had to wear them, no matter what species they are."

Nick laughed. "That certainly would make it easier to pick out the bad eggs, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah! And then everyone would be _super_ motivated to be nice."

He smiled down at her, standing up and offering her his paw. "Come on, I'll take you to my house so we can get that cut bandaged up."

* * *

 **Aaaaand here it is! The distress flip-flop to where Judy is the one enduring a traumatic bullying experience! And thus concludes the extremely satisfying young-Judy-and-Nick-are-there-for-each-other-when-they-really-really-needed-it saga! The rest of the story will (mostly) be original storyline, so this is the last we're gonna see of movie flashbacks.**

 **I was originally kind of meh about this chapter and wanted to change it, if for no other reason than that Nick was kind of quick to make Judy's issue all about him when she accidentally put her foot in her mouth about the shock collar thing. But honestly I have a midterm coming up, and I can't afford to edit and change the plot TOO much, so I just went in and made the dialogue sound a bit more natural.**

 **Sorry for the relatively short chapter! Honestly, other than Judy getting hurt and then her and Nick getting into a brief argument, I didn't have much planned for this chapter. It's a lot less intense than Nick's bullying experience, but that's mainly because Nick and Judy don't go to the same school, so he couldn't be there to defend her as it was happening, or fight Gideon off or anything. It's more of an after-the-fact "oh this happened and it sucked" kinda deal. But honestly there's only so much comforting you can do without removing shock collars and getting in trouble with the law again…thus, short chapter ^^;**

 **Until next time! Keep the great reviews coming in :D I read them all, even if I don't reply!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 10**

 **Nick: 12**

* * *

Being twelve now, Nick had insisted he had grown too old for treehouses, and had suggested that they meet up in a vacant lot close to his neighborhood instead.

They could, of course, just go to Nick's house, Judy had pointed out. His mother knew full well of Judy's existence, and even went out of her way to make carrot cake cupcakes whenever Judy came over. Still, Judy couldn't help but be a little paranoid that word would somehow get back through the parent chain that she was best friends with a fox.

Her parents, needless to say, would not be pleased.

Besides, Judy wasn't going to lie. She knew both she and Nick got a rush out of meeting in secret, feeling like they were doing something taboo and forbidden.

Amazing how much better it felt to break rules when you had been a stickler for them all your life, Judy thought.

Overgrown grass swept around her paws as she and Nick made their way through the scruffy field. The dilapidated buildings and bumpy, broken road effectively sealed it off from the civilized world, giving the two mammals near complete privacy.

"I haven't seen you as much," Judy commented. "Busy with schoolwork?"

"Well…not exactly." Nick smiled meekly, rubbing the back of his neck with his paw.

Judy's ears pricked up curiously. "What _have_ you been doing, then?"

Whatever it was, it was only letting him meet her once a week. Although Judy had her own homework and extracurricular activities to keep her busy, she missed when they could play every single day.

"Helping my mom bring in a little extra money." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh! Did you get a job?" She wondered why Nick looked so skittish. That hardly seemed like something to be ashamed of.

"Not…exactly." He still seemed to be looking right past her, green eyes fixed on the brick building towering over the edge of the lot.

"What, then?" she pried.

He hesitated. "Well…I've started kind of a…side business. It's a bit tricky, though."

Judy raised an eyebrow. She didn't think she liked his growing smirk. "Nick…what have you been doing?"

"Uh…you know those elephant ice cream stores that sell the really, really big popsicles?"

"Yeah, sure. What about them."

"I may have been…uh…buying them melting them down to resell? And, um…selling the used popsicle sticks to rodent lumber companies." He grinned apologetically.

"Wait, _what?_ " Her eyes widened, ears sticking straight up.

Nick winced, holding up his front paws. "Just trying to get a little extra income in!"

"That can't…you can't…that's _really_ sketchy, Nick! No way this is legal. You're going to get caught, and…" She gave him a worried look. "You're going to get in a lot of trouble."

He laughed. "No, I'm not! That's what you sneak around for."

Judy sighed. "It's…it's not that easy. You get caught reselling products without a permit, you get fined. A _lot_. And you only have to fail at covering your tracks once, you know."

"I've actually got a permit, surprisingly. Thought I didn't think this through, huh?" He smirked.

"…oh." She blinked a few times. Nick stuck his nose in the air proudly, face turning smug as he saw her obvious surprise.

"Nah, nothing wrong with this," he went on, although he still sounded a bit uncertain.

"Do you really have to sell the used popsicle sticks to rodents, though? That's disgusting! Do they have any idea they're literally covered in saliva?"

"Ah…no. But what they don't know won't hurt them, right?"

"No, but it's still gross," she muttered.

Nick shrugged. "Hey, I sell the product, they buy. Not doing their research is on them."

She turned away, hating how casually calculating his voice was.

"Nick, this is just so…so _dishonest_. It isn't you." She turned and gave him a pleading look. "Why not just get an actual job if your mom needs the money?"

He sighed. "Well, most places aren't gonna hire some twelve-year-old kid, let alone a twelve-year-old kid who happens to be a fox."

"Oh, come on! I'm sure some place would!"

"You'd be surprised. I've really scoured every niche."

" _Every_ one? A paperboy? A lifeguard? A shop worker?"

" _Yes_ , every one!" he snapped. "I've tried setting up a lawn-mowing business, but no one wanted me to even do that. And I tried doing odd jobs or being an assistant…but no one wants me to work for them! Believe me, I've looked everywhere."

"Oh." Judy but a brief, comforting paw on his arm. "I'm sorry, Nick. But…there has to be some other way…"

"Please." He looked at her with wide, imploring eyes. "Please don't give me a hard time about this. If there was another way, I'd take it. I wasn't even going to tell you about this, because I knew you wouldn't like it. But you asked, so…" He fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I know it's bad," he went on. "But my mom got fired from her old job, and her new one doesn't pay nearly as much. We really need the extra money right now. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to, Carrots. You know that."

"Right," she said softly. "I do."

His expression lightened a bit. "Now, you have to promise me you're not going to tell anyone about this. Wouldn't want my favorite bunny cop chewing me out!" He gave her a playful shove.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Well, since you have a permit, I _guess_ I can't arrest you."

"I'm afraid not, officer," he said with a smirk.

"Or can I?" She grinned, suddenly jumping to the side and pointing her paw at him in the shape of a gun. "Stick 'em up, Mr. Wilde! Your days of popsicle conning are over!"

"Oh no!" Nick stuck his arms in the air, eyes full of mock fear. "They've found me! My popsicle-trafficking ring, exposed!"

"That's right, buddy! And I'm taking you downtown!" She hopped over as he put his arms down, pulling his paws behind his back and clicking her tongue like she was putting handcuffs on.

Laughter echoed off of the dilapidated buildings towering over the lot, and any uneasiness Judy might have felt about her friend's ploy was momentarily forgotten.

* * *

 **Heyyyyy, sorry for another short chapter! ^^; This one wasn't supposed to do much beyond show Judy's reaction to Nick's popsicle con in this particular childhood friends timeline, so naturally it wasn't going to be very long.**

 **Fun fact: Upon rereading what I wrote for this chapter, I realized I hated most of it XD Like it just seemed super rushed and sloppy, so I pretty much just went back and rewrote the whole thing Monday night, despite being tired as fuck and just generally wanting to go to sleep instead of stressing about editing this thing. Buuuuut I knew I would have no time for editing on Tuesday, and I'm not giving you guys crap, so I toughed it out and made this chapter better! I hope you like it ^^;**

 **In all honesty I think Judy would be pretty understanding of Nick's popsicle conning if she was his friend beforehand, and knew he was doing it to help his mom. I wrote this chapter mainly to contrast her reaction to it in this childhood-friends scenario to her reaction to it in the movie. Heh, kind of crazy how different she would likely see things if she and Nick had grown up together!**

 **Yeah, yeah, I know this chapter was super short, and I'm sorry about that D: Again, that's just kind of how it turned out. Buuuuuttttt NEXT week, your chapter's a LOT longer! And something EXCITING happens! Muahaha, now the anticipation's going to eat away at you for two weeks :D**

 **Well, it'll make it all the more satisfying when two weeks from now finally arrives! See you then!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 13**

 **Nick: 15**

* * *

"Jeez, when did you get so _tall?_ " Judy complained, craning her head to look up at Nick's face. With her friend's teen years had come ripped jeans, grungy band shirts, and a ridiculous growth spurt that left her feeling like she was hanging out with a skyscraper. He had always been taller than her, but after this new development, she didn't even reach his shoulders anymore.

"Now, are you sure _I_ got tall, and that you didn't just get super-ultra-ridiculously short?" Nick asked, smirking down at her.

"You don't _get shorter,_ stupid."

"Either that, or…your little body decided it was already so puny that it had no hopes of getting bigger, so it decided it might as well start shrinking!"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Weirdo."

"Short bunny," he shot back.

"Hey!" She pointed an accusing finger up at him. "If you're so high and mighty, why don't you get to that stack of crates over there faster than me?"

"Is that a challe—" Judy was already gone, bounding and springing along like a living pogo stick. Even at top speed with his longer legs, Nick found that he couldn't catch up. Judy reached the pile of crates several feet ahead of him, and smirked triumphantly as she clambered on top of the closest one.

"That's not even fair!" he panted, collapsing with his hands on his knees as he reached the crate. "You got a head start!"

"Not my fault you're not quick enough to realize what's going on! Admit it, Nick. Slow fox." She pointed at him, then at herself. "Fast bunny."

Nick crossed his arms, pouting playfully. "I could run _just_ as fast as you if I wanted!"

"Could not!" Judy shot back.

"Oh, but I thought this was Zootopia, where anyone can be anything! Doesn't that mean a fox can be faster than a bunny?"

"Yeah, but _this_ fox isn't faster than _this_ bunny! Because who's queen of the crates?"

"Well, if you hadn't—"

" _Who's queen of the crates?_ "

Nick rolled his eyes. "You are, Your Highness." Outwardly he was trying to look annoyed, but Nick had to admit to himself that Judy was really cute when she gloated.

 _Wait, what?_

"Hey, look," Judy said softly. "I'm taller than you now."

Nick snorted. "Your ears don't count, Carrots."

"Okay." She lowered her ears so that they hung lazily over the back of her head. "Well, I'm still _just_ as tall as you up here."

"I'll be the judge of that!"

Nick walked over to stand right in front of her, so that the top of their heads lined up. Judy lifted a paw to the top of her head and slid it over so that it went just over the top of Nick's.

"Ha! I'm two inches taller than you up here, Nick Wilde!"

He rolled his eyes again, but couldn't help but crack a smile. "Okay, yeah, I guess you are."

"Yay!"

And suddenly, while standing there and looking her over, Nick was overcome with a strange feeling in his chest. Her ears had sprung up again, and she was grinning as wide as her face would allow. Her purple eyes were practically glowing, the paws on her hips and the widely-spaced feet radiating the kind of confidence any animal would ache to have. And with the wind catching in her light gray fur like she was some sort of model, Nick thought she seemed, for lack of a better word, perfect.

And it was in that moment that he thought he could search the whole world and never find a girl he wanted more than Judy Hopps.

Impulse took over like a shot of drugs, and he leaned forward, taking her small face in his paws and kissing her.

He tried to focus on her soft lips, warm and inviting and completely flawless, but the timer in his head counted down like the beeping of a bomb about to explode.

 _One…two…three…four…five…_

He released her, stumbling backwards and letting out a shaky breath. Regret bit at him like a flea the moment he saw the shocked expression on his friend's face.

"I'm so sorry," he spluttered. "I shouldn't have done that, I wasn't thinking, I just got caught up in my head and I completely fucked up and if you wanna be mad you can because I just had the biggest brain fart ever and I thought it would be okay to do a crazy thing like that without asking…but I just…I really wanted to, and I know it was wrong but you just…looked really pretty just now and AUGH! Why can't I talk?! I guess I should stop trying to explain it because nothing really justifies—"

Her words cut sharply into his panicked ramble. "I don't mind."

And with that, the shocked look wielded the smallest of smiles.

Green eyes widened. "You…don't?"

"No. I sort of…hoped you would. But I didn't actually _think_ you would."

"You wanted me to kiss you?"

Judy blushed, looking quickly away. "Well, I mean…I'm not going to say I haven't thought about it…"

As his features started to widen into a huge grin, Judy's eyes widened. "Wait, no! It doesn't mean anything! Well, I mean, I guess…I just…oh, forget I said anything!"

"You _like_ me, Carrots!" Nick teased. "You want me to be your boyfriend!"

"You were the one who kissed me!" she retorted, sounding flustered.

He smirked. "Yeah, but _you_ said you didn't mind."

"All I meant was that…uh…it's not _completely_ out of the question for me to think of you that way…I mean…I'm not sure and I'm really scared about all this but…uh…um…"

Nick took a step toward the crate, tipping Judy's face up with his paw so that their eyes met. His heart was slamming out of his chest and his tail was bushing up, but he didn't care. It was now or never, and he wasn't going to let this moment slide.

"I think I like you, Judy."

She smiled at him, but there was a sadness overshadowing it. "I think I like you, too."

"So…" He reached out and briefly grabbed her paw. "What do we do?"

"Nothing."

The statement wasn't harsh or sharp—it was actually rather casual and matter-of-fact—but it bit into Nick like honed metal.

His entire body sagged. "Why?"

"We're best friends," she said softly. "We have been since we were kids. Do you really want to risk throwing that all away after we go through some nasty breakup and one of us is completely heartbroken? And we hate each other? I just don't want to ruin what we have, Nick. Especially not to satisfy some…dumb teenage hormones."

Nick's ears drooped. "But what I feel about you, Judy…it's _more_ than just teenage hormones."

She shook her head. "You say that now, but give it a couple years and your hormones will convince you some _other_ girl is everything you've ever wanted. That's how these teen crushes work."

"Not _this_ one," Nick said stubbornly.

"You…you don't know that. Besides, _look_ at us, Nick!" She gestured to the space between them. "Think about it. I'm prey, you're a predator…we can't even tell most animals that we're even _friends_. How would the world react if we dated? Besides, we can't even touch each other for more than 10 seconds without you getting your brains shocked out! What kind of a relationship would that be?"

And he did think about it. He imagined himself lying next to Judy, holding her close and breathing in her soft scent…only to have to shove her away after 9 seconds, overcome by the fear of burning currents ripping through his skin and into hers. He imagined himself kissing her deeply, mouth aching for more as she pulled away prematurely. He imagined them naked together on a twin-size bed, wanting to hold each other tightly as they made love but only being able to touch and kiss and screw for a few seconds before they had to pull apart and start over. He imagined stolen touches and kisses that didn't linger, paws clasped tightly only to pull apart again. He imagined her sleeping next to him in bed, and him screaming into his pillow because he couldn't hold his own girlfriend as she slept, to keep her nightmares away and match his breathing to hers until he drifted off to join her.

And the thought of all that was so agonizing that Nick visibly flinched.

He knew he could deal with the leering stares and the judgmental remarks. He would happily have shown Judy off to the world, not caring what anyone had to say. But the thought of being with someone who he couldn't touch for more than ten seconds was frustrating and wrong and just so profoundly _unsatisfying._

"You're right," he said. "We shouldn't do this."

Judy hesitated, looking like she was about to change her mind. "Nick, I—"

"No, don't say anything. We _can't_ do this. We can never give each other what we need."

There was a long silence.

"Should we try to forget?" Judy asked finally.

Nick considered the question for a while before answering.

"Not all of it," he said, grinning wryly. "Just enough to make us not want to do anything again."

* * *

 **Ehuehuehuehue**

 **I TOLD you something big would happen!**

 **My apologies if Nick and Judy liking each other seemed kind of out-of-the-blue. I guess it was supposed to be…implicit? Like I dunno, I tried to make their interactions fluffy enough so that I wouldn't need to outright say that they had a crush on each other until this part. I did okay, right? ^^; I mean…we all ship them anyway, so I don't think it ultimately matters XD And hey, the romantic tension is far from resolved! This fox and bunny have some trials and tribulations yet before they can be a full-fledged couple.**

 **I wanted to spend more time developing their crushes on each other, but…the structure of the story didn't really allow for it? I mean, I have it so we only "check up" on them every few years when something important happens, so unfortunately a lot of their feeling-developing kind of happened off-screen. Still, I REALLY hope it was implicit ^^; That and Nick WAS being slightly hormonal, despite his claims to the contrary. I HOPE THAT JUSTIFIES THIS SORT OF RANDOM FIRST KISS!**

 **ANYWAY LOOK AT THEM BOTH GETTING ALL FLUSTERED**

 **D'AWWWW**

 **And hoooo boy, here's some of the juicy angst I'm sure you all have been longing for! OH NO, THEY LIKE EACH OTHER BUT THEY CAN'T BE TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY CAN'T TOUCH EACH OTHER! OTP? More like "oh, the pain!"**

 **Come on though, that's what you came for ;3**

 **Ehehe, this whole thing was actually such a joy to write :D I love first kiss scenes! Well, see you next update for another fun chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 15**

 **Nick: 17**

* * *

A vast black sky stretched out above Nick and Judy's heads, dotted across with an enormous swath of white stars. Luckily, the light pollution of the city was far enough away that the fox and the rabbit could see a fair amount of the milky way.

Judy tucked her paws behind her head, feeling the smooth slats of the treehouse roof against her back. Beside her, Nick let out a laugh.

"Well, this is nostalgic, isn't it Carrots?"

She sighed contentedly. "Sure is!"

Nick snorted. "I still can't believe that you wanted to go _stargazing_ on the roof of our old treehouse. _So_ cheesy."

"It is _not!_ " Judy huffed. "Just look how beautiful they are! No wonder so many animals do this. Aren't they pretty, Nick?"

"Yes, but you're a sap." Nick turned and smirked at her. "Doesn't a popular bunny like you have something better to be doing on a Friday night, anyway? Like, say, be at whatserface's party?"

"Oh, Zoey Hopchelle," Judy said, remembering the snowshoe hare's party that she had told Nick about a couple weeks ago. "I was thinking about going, but then I heard Kevin Lowleap was going to be there, so I ditched."

"So what's the problem?" Nick asked, raising his eyebrows. "Isn't that the guy who likes you?"

Judy groaned. "Yeah, if by 'like' you mean 'shoved his tongue down my throat during Spin the Bottle and now won't leave me alone.' Like no, I don't want to date you when my mouth is still traumatized from your bad kissing."

"Oh man." He winced. "Well…were at least _some_ of the guys you played Spin the Bottle with half-decent kissers?"

"Well…I guess Stephen Jumpton the snowshoe hare and Andrew Bouncer the jackrabbit weren't too bad," she said indifferently.

"Weren't _too_ bad?" Nick smirked. "I guess that's high praise!"

"Ah, well." Judy shrugged nonchalantly. "It's all relative because nothing really compares to when you kissed me."

As soon as the words left her, her face burned, and she quickly slapped a paw over her mouth. _Did I really just say that out loud?_

Nick, for his part, looked mortified as well. "I still can't believe I did that," he muttered. "That was so out-of-line of me, to just…grab you and kiss you like that without asking, and I'm sorry I confused you like that and—"

Before she knew what she was doing, Judy rolled over and pressed her mouth against his, cutting off the rest of his sentence. Her lips moved against his for 7 seconds (she kept careful count), and the last 4 or so, he tentatively kissed her back.

She pulled away and he stared at her, green eyes wide with surprise. After a few seconds of shocked silence, he smirked.

"Funny, I thought you didn't want to ruin the friendship, Carrots."

She smirked back. "I'm not ruining anything. I'm just giving you some practice for when you finally get Estella Vulpina to go on a date with you, and you make out with her."

Nick's ears flattened slightly in embarrassment at the mention of the vixen he liked. "Ah, stop it!"

"Isn't that what friends do?" she teased. "Help each other practice kissing?" Even though her voice was cheerful as she said it, she felt the smallest prick of sadness. Sometimes she liked to thoroughly forget Estella's existence, with her beautiful white fur and soft, round ears and stunning blue eyes, but she couldn't think of any other justification for her impulsive Nick-kissing.

 _What's wrong with me, anyway? I told him I wasn't interested in going any farther than we are!_

"Well, it's not like it's any use," Nick sighed. "She's seeing that jerk dingo Canton Barcks now. Not like I stood much chance against an asshole on the football team, anyway."

Judy wanted to slap herself for feeling delighted at that revelation. Forcing a sad look, Judy briefly touched her friend's shoulder in comfort.

"Awww, Nick! I'm sorry. She's really missing out, you know."

Nick laughed dryly. "Well, at least someone thinks so. Oh look!"

His attention shifted to the sky, where a silver streak flashed by under the moon, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Shooting star!" He turned to her and grinned. "I wonder if I could reach out and grab it." Judy rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Whaaaaat?" He frowned at her. "The sky feels so close here!"

He started inching toward the edge of the treehouse roof, and Judy bit her lip anxiously. "Nick…be careful…"

As he got closer and closer to the 80-foot drop, Judy's heart started to speed up. One wrong move and he was a goner. She started to cautiously follow him, feeling the slightest stab of guilt.

 _Why did I talk him into coming up here in the first place 9 years ago? He told me it was dangerous then!_

He stopped at the edge and turned to her. She was glowering at him, and he smirked, leaning the slightest bit over.

"Oh no!" He leaned even more over, mock terror on his face. "I'm gonna fall!" He started scrabbling, looking like he was losing his balance. Judy started to race over to him, only for him to smoothly regain his footing as though he had never been in danger in the first place.

"Nick Wilde, you get away from there!" Judy snapped.

"Hold up, I've gotta grab you a star, Carrots!" He reached a paw out, leaning an agonizing amount over the edge and snatching at the sky. Judy would have yanked him back if it didn't occur to her that a small bunny trying to pull a much larger fox anywhere would likely result in failure and the shocking of said fox.

"Damn, missed," he said, leaning back into safety again. "I'll have to try again!"

"Nick, seriously!" Judy pleaded, but he was already in the process of leaning out and groping at the stars again, grunting with effort.

He let out a startled shriek, and for a moment she thought it was fake until she saw him topple over the edge of the roof. Within seconds the prank became real as he clutched onto the roof with his fingertips, dangling precariously off of the side.

"NICK!" she screamed, rushing to his side and clutching one of his paws with both of hers. She yanked up as hard as she could, managing to pull it onto the roof so he could claw at it while she tugged on the other paw.

Slowly, she tugged him back up onto the roof, the fox struggling and clawing his way up all the while. He was so much heavier than her that it felt like pulling a sack of stones, and her paws were beginning to ache, but she wasn't about to let her friend fall.

Suddenly, his green eyes widened. "Judy, let go! LET GO!"

"What? No! I'm not going to let you fall."

"No, you're going to—"

He was just barely back on the roof when he let out a chilling screech, his collar making a loud buzzing noise. Judy yanked her paw away, and Nick started writhing around on the wood slats, fur puffing out and teeth clenching in pain. Blue sparks flew up around him, and the sizzling sounds as electricity coursed through his body sent chills down Judy's spine.

After several seconds the shock ended, and Nick lay there curled into himself clutching his knees to his chest. Judy reached toward him to put a brief, comforting paw on his shoulder, but he shrunk away from her touch. She wanted more than anything to run forward and wrap her arms around him, but she held back.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. He looked at her with a haunted expression in his eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry you had to go through that."

He didn't answer for a while, moaning softly in pain. "I _told_ you to let go," he rasped brokenly.

Judy shook her head. "I'm sorry, I couldn't. You were going to fall!"

"No, I wasn't!" His voice was becoming overshadowed with uncharacteristic harshness. "I was already on the roof!"

"Yeah, but just barely," Judy retorted. "I didn't want to see you get hurt—"

"Well, you _just did!_ " he snapped, cutting her off. "I told you to let go, and you didn't. And now look what you've done."

The cold look in his eyes cut into Judy like a sharpened blade.

"I'm sorry," she said again, her voice cracking. "I was only trying to help."

"I've already told you, I had everything under control," Nick growled. He gave her a pained look. "You knew what would happen if you held onto me for more than 10 seconds…so why did you keep doing it?"

Judy's stomach squirmed with guilt. He looked so completely… _betrayed_.

"All I could think about was you falling and getting hurt," she said. "The collar was the last thing on my mind, and I…I completely forgot. I was so caught up in the moment that I just…" She trailed off.

"So you didn't trust me, then?" Nick crossed his arms. "I _told_ you to let go of me and you thought I didn't know what I was talking about."

"Because you _didn't!_ You were going to fall off the roof and kill yourself."

"Well, I guess forgetting all about the shocking device _constantly_ around your _lifelong best friend's_ neck is exactly what I'd expect from a dumb rabbit," he growled, his voice growing bitter.

The insult made Judy bristle, her guilt quickly overcome by anger. "Fine, then!" she spat. "If you're going to be a huge jerk to me, why don't you just go home and cry to mommy? Sweet cheese and crackers, I'm sorry I wasn't entirely focused on you getting zapped when there was a possibility of you falling 80 feet to your death!"

"Fine, maybe I will go," he hissed, getting to his paws. "But you better believe I'm not going to do any crying!"

"Really? Because the whiny baby I've been talking to who's been getting all ticked off about his friend being concerned for his safety seems like that's _exactly_ what he's going to do."

He had already started to storm off, but froze in his spot when he heard her comment. "Fuck off!" he snarled over his shoulder. "You don't know anything about me. About what I've been through. And you fucking dare to call me a _whiny baby_ for it?"

"Well that's what you're acting like, you jerk!" she snapped.

He turned and gave her the coldest green look she'd ever seen him give her. "You'll never get it, you stupid rabbit."

With that he was gone, hopping down onto the top of the barbecue pit and then onto the platform surrounding the treehouse. Judy watched him vanish from sight with clenched teeth and a hard purple stare.

* * *

Judy lay sprawled ungraciously out on her bed, her head resting heavily on her crossed paws. For the last thirty minutes or so, she had been staring at her nightstand, feeling what could only be described as the emotional equivalent of watching paint dry.

Her initial anger had subsided, briefly replaced with a deep hurt and sadness. It didn't take long for this too to ebb away, and now all she felt was a vast sort of emptiness that made her ears sag against the covers and her entire body feel like a lump of wet cement. It was as if the emptiness was chewing away at her very soul, eating everything that made her her to replace it with a blank white void.

Who the hell was she without Nick Wilde, anyway?

It wasn't as if she was dependent on him. Far from it—if anything, her constant encouraging and support was probably one of the only things that had kept _him_ going so cheerfully. It was simply that he had been a constant presence for her since she was four years old, as familiar to her as the back of her own gray paw. Imagining herself without him was like imagining herself with an appendage removed, or with a sense snatched away.

She would be so painfully, obviously _unfinished_. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to imagine who she would become if Nick didn't come back.

And after what had happened earlier tonight, who's to say he would? He called her a stupid rabbit. He said she would never understand him.

So maybe he would go find a new best friend. Someone with a tight shock collar to match his own, someone who also had to constantly worry about brushing against prey animals. Someone who faced all of society labelling them as a monster. Someone who _understood_ him.

At last, an emotion found its way into the white void inside Judy, as sharp and intense as the flavor of one of those gourmet foreign cheeses her mother bought on occasion.

Unbridled bitterness.

Because all that mattered was that Judy Hopps wasn't a predator. All that mattered was that she could never understand him because she was just a stupid rabbit, never mind the fact that she would gladly spend the rest of her life defending Nick from anyone who dared to hate him for what he was and being there for him absolutely whenever he needed a shoulder to cry on (well, metaphorically anyway—it wasn't as if he could _actually_ cry on her shoulder) or someone to complain to about just how unfair and screwed up the world really was.

She would always, always be there for him, whether she understood him or not. And for the love of all things holy, would she ever _try_ to understand him. And wasn't that enough?

Judy was feeling so drained that the sudden blaring of her ringtone didn't even startle her. Slowly, she began to roll over toward where her phone was lying next to her, putting as much time as possible between hearing the ring and having to talk to whoever-it-was. She wasn't in a particularly social mood.

Her violet eyes settled on the caller ID, and she didn't know whether to feel relief or dread. She was still apathetic to the point where it just seemed easier to just not feel either.

Dumb Fox.

Letting out the tiniest sigh, she picked up the phone and pressed the "Accept Call" button.

"Hi," she said tonelessly.

"Judy…" Nick's voice was shaking slightly, sending a ripple of satisfaction down Judy's spine.

He wasted no time before launching into the apology. "I'm sorry about earlier, about everything I said…I didn't mean any of it. I don't think you're a stupid rabbit at all. Just…forget I ever said that. Please. You're one of the smartest animals I know, actually."

He took a short breath. "And…and of course you understand me. Better than I ever thought a bunny could. You're my best friend, and you always will be."

For the first time in five hours, since Nick had started to approach the edge of the roof, Judy smiled.

"I was just so…so angry about getting shocked, and I took it out on you," he went on. "And that wasn't fair. You didn't mean to set it off…you were just trying to help me."

"Well, I'm sorry too," Judy said. "I can't believe I forgot about your collar. You're right, it was dumb of me to just space out about something that's been there _that_ long."

"No, I understand, Carrots," Nick sighed. "You were scared and all that. You weren't thinking straight."

"I know, but…I still should have known better."

" _You_ should have known better?" The shadow of a laugh creeped its way into the fox's voice. "Hey, if I hadn't sauntered my dumb self _right_ to the edge of the roof, this whole mess could've been avoided."

Judy chuckled. "Yeah, good point! I _did_ warn you against that."

He laughed, and Judy shook her head, suddenly feeling like an idiot for thinking one fight was going to end 11 years of friendship _just like that_. She smirked to herself, remembering something Nick had said.

 _"_ _You bunnies, always so emotional!"_

Judging by her melodramatic overreaction, he wasn't wrong.

Nick's voice grew serious again. "I really am sorry about calling you a stupid rabbit. I hope you don't hate me forever for it…although I wouldn't blame you if you did. That's why I had to smack myself upside the head several times with a wooden plank to get myself to call you and tell you sorry in person instead of texting you five paragraphs about it. I didn't want to hear your adorable bunny voice be filled with loathing."

Judy snorted. "Well, I'd still try to slap you over text, you jerkity jerk! Where did you even _get_ a wooden plank?"

She could almost hear the smirk in his voice. "You could say my rickety house is falling apart."

"Wow, Nick, that's—"

"Judy!" A sharp knock sounded on her bedroom door. "Who are you talking to?"

She froze, her eyes widening. She and Nick rarely talked on the phone, so she didn't normally have to lie about it to her mom.

"Uhhhh…" she mumbled, staring at her pillow and trying to think. Her eyes brightened. "Just Kevin Lowleap from school!"

"Oh!" Bonnie Hopps's voice grew thick with curiosity. "A _boy?_ "

Judy's cheeks burned. The thought of her mother thinking she was involved with Kevin Lowleap, of all animals, made her want to throw up. He was the first non-Nick male to come to mind, and she was starting to regret that fact.

"Yeah, so?"

"Is he your _boyfriend?_ "

"Of course not!" she snapped. "Go away, Mom. He's just calling me about homework, that's all."

"If you say so!" Bonnie sang. Judy rolled her eyes as she heard her mother hop away.

"What was that all about?" Nick asked.

"I told my mom I was talking to a boy, and she assumed it was my boyfriend," Judy sighed. "Typical."

"Says the one who kissed me earlier," he teased.

"SHUT UP!" Judy's cheeks flushed red. "Anyway, um…sorry I called you a whiney baby earlier. That's wasn't fair. You had every right to be upset with me."

"Well maybe, but you didn't miss the mark _too_ much," he said with a chuckle. "So…" He hesitated a bit. "Are we cool?"

Judy nodded vigorously, forgetting for a second that he couldn't see her. "Yeah, of course we're cool!"

"Let's just forget the whole thing ever happened."

"Deal." Judy smiled to herself, her whole body going weak with relief.

She wasn't going to lose Nick. Not this way.

* * *

 **Eyyyy I am BACK! Admittedly with much chagrin, as this is the week before finals and I have a thousand other things I need to do. However, I promised every two weeks, and a promise is a promise. I update when I say I'm going to update, so here's a new one!**

 **Fun fact: This chapter originally didn't exist, but I wanted an excuse to show some of Nick and Judy's high school shenanigans XD That, and I wanted to see them kiss again! And also I wanted to have Nick ACTUALLY get shocked by the collar, instead of it being this entirely hypothetical thing. Just to emphasize how much it really sucks and also see how it actually affects both of them when it…you know…actually happens.**

 **ANYWAYS**

 **HAHAHA THAT AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN YOU'RE FUCKING WITH YOUR FRIEND BY PRETENDING TO FALL OFF THE ROOF AND THEN ACTUALLY FALL OFF THE ROOF**

 **NICK YOU DUMBASS**

 **Oh, teenagers!**

 **Oooooh ouch, their first big fight scene D: Eh, couldn't just be flowers and rainbows though since this is a drama, after all! I know I made Nick come across pretty harsh, but in my defense he was a gigantic dick to Judy at the beginning of the movie and completely unapologetic about it, so it's not like he isn't capable of it.**

 **Judy's whole internal monologue is also somewhat of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Written partially as a vent about a personal experience…I have also worried about a close friend replacing me with friends who "understood" him better and gotten a bit jealous, as bad as that sounds. I think it's only a natural part of having a close friend…you want so badly to be one of the most important people in their life because they're one of the most important people in yours.**

 **(Heh, realistically it probably would've taken longer than one phone call to resolve that fight, but fuck it, I didn't feel like dragging it out! Besides, if I made it into a full-out drama fest, the chapter would be like a novel long and would go on FOREVER XD)**

 **Well, until next update! Hopefully finals will not have killed me by then!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 16**

 **Nick: 18**

* * *

"Ugh, I'm so _sick_ of this!"

"Sick of what?" Nick gave his friend a puzzled look. She had sat down heavily on one of the crates in the grassy lot, her head resting on her paws and her ears hanging dejectedly down. The two of them had been having a cheerful conversation about Judy's Sweet 16 birthday party the previous Saturday, and she had been excitedly filling him in on all the details. But then, for a reason Nick couldn't quite figure out, the conversation had gone south as she began to look sadder and more irritated, finally plopping down on the crate with a huff.

"This…this _sneaking around_ we have to do." She gave a frustrated gesture to the lot around them. "Meeting in secret like it's some horrible abomination that we're friends, me telling my parents that I'm off at _vegetable club_ or something else ridiculous whenever I come to see you."

Despite himself, Nick smirked slightly. Did Judy's school _actually_ have a vegetable club?

"And I can't even invite you to my stinking _birthday party_ , despite you being my best friend!" she went on angrily. "All last Saturday, at the party…it felt so _wrong_ that you weren't there. Like I was betraying you or something. I couldn't fully enjoy myself, to be honest."

Nick's eyes lit up with understanding. Ah, so _that's_ what this was about. "Carrots, I've already told you, I'm not offended you didn't invite me," he insisted. Well, sure, maybe he was a _little_ saddened he had had to miss out on the fun, but Judy had a perfectly good reason why. "I understand, what with your parents supervising and all—"

"But that's the _thing_ ," she cut him off. "I shouldn't _have_ to hide you from my parents. Or anyone else. You're one of the most important animals in my life."

Nick blushed furiously, and was glad that his fur hid it.

"It's for the best," he said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Your parents, uh…don't really like foxes." He winced, remembering what Judy's dad had said to him when he was younger.

"Maybe I can change their minds, then," she said brightly.

"I dunno, Judy. From what you've said about them, they seem pretty set in their ways."

"I'll have to convince them their ways are wrong, then. And you know what?" She hopped off the crate and got to her feet. "That starts _right now_."

He raised his eyebrows. "Uh…Judy…what are you talking about?"

"I'm going to introduce you to my parents!" she announced cheerfully. "Come on!" Before he even had the chance to respond, she was already marching across the lot toward the gate entrance.

He ran out in front of her before she could get far, waving his paws frantically. "Whoa, whoa, wait! Carrots, _wait!_ "

"What?" She gave him a puzzled look.

"This is a really bad idea. Like, really, really bad!" he hissed, eyes wide and frantic.

"Why?" she asked, frowning.

He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at her. "They didn't exactly take well to us playing together when we were kids. Remember how your dad screamed at me and threatened to call the police on me?"

"Oh…right…well…" Judy rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I don't have to tell him you're that same fox, you know. I could just tell you you're a new friend I made at school!"

"I think you're missing the point," he said. "Your dad's obviously not okay with foxes."

"He will be, once I'm through with him!" Judy huffed. "I've already told you, I'm going to change his mind. And my mom's."

Nick narrowed his eyes. "You think it's going to be that easy, huh?"

"Nick, c'mon! They're my parents!" She leaned up to briefly touch his face. "And if they aren't able to see how awesome you are, I'll have to set them straight."

He stood his ground as she continued to walk forward. She turned and gave him a somewhat impatient look. "Well, come on!"

"I _still_ don't think this is a good idea. There's a reason we've been being secretive for so long."

Judy let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, because it's some sort of stupid social taboo for us to be friends! You know, nothing's ever going to change if we don't do _something_ to openly challenge the way things are."

Nick sighed. She _did_ kind of have a point there.

His ears drooped in defeat. "Okay, okay, _fine_. But if your folks don't take it well, I'm totally saying 'I told you so.'"

She grinned at him. "All right, deal!" Turning away, she bounded off to the front of the lot. "Now come on!"

The entire walk back to Judy's house, she was bouncing along like a sentient pogo stick, as if the massive ensuing fight with her parents was something she was actually _happy_ about. Nick trailed more dismally behind her, fluffy tail dragging on the sidewalk as he tried to come to terms with their impending doom.

Although, as much as he hated to admit it to himself, whatever happened next, it would be a relief for the cat to finally be out of the bag. Sneaking around _did_ get quite draining when you'd been doing it for 12 years.

When they turned onto her street, the pit in his stomach only tightened more and more as they approached her house. By the time they arrived, he thought he might well vomit in her front yard. He was only able to refrain himself on the grounds that if he wanted to change Judy's family's mind about foxes, getting his upchucked lunch all over their manicured grass might not be the best way to do so.

Humming the tune to some pop song and not seeming the least bit nervous, Judy pulled out her house key on the porch and unlocked her front door. She hopped through the doorframe and trotted into her living room. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" she called out.

Stu Hopps emerged from the kitchen, Bonnie Hopps close behind him. "Ah, Jude the dude! How was book—" He trailed off as soon as he saw Nick, his cheerful smile becoming a concerned frown.

"Er—Judy? Who's this?"

"Oh…um…" Judy took a little breath. "This is my new friend Nick, from school! I ran into him on the way home from book club, and we're both all done with our homework for the weekend, so I invited him over here to hang out. We can go somewhere else, if we're going to be bothering you," she added quickly.

"Oh…hello!" Judy's mother tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"Er…nice to meet you, son!" Judy's father gave Nick an encouraging nod, although he looked equally as unenthusiastic as her mother. He turned and gave his daughter a you're-going-to-be-in-a-lot-of-trouble-in-just-a-minute look. "Judy, could we talk to you for a minute please?" he said quietly. "Alone?"

"Sure, of course." She turned and gave her friend an apologetic look before following her parents into the kitchen.

"Judy, what's this all about?" Stu hissed as soon as Nick was out of earshot. "Why in tarnation are you bringing a _fox_ into the house?"

"Dad, he's my _friend!_ " Judy retorted, crossing her arms.

"But foxes can be quite dangerous," Bonnie fretted. "They're predators, after all. It's in their genes to hurt animals like us!"

Judy rolled her eyes. "That's ridiculous! I know Nick, and he's not like that at all."

"Well, it might _seem_ like that, but you can't go around blindly trusting those foxes," Stu said. "They're known for being deceitful and tricky, you know."

"Sweet cheese and crackers, I _know_ that!" Judy snapped. "But Nick's different. Besides, those sorts of labels are dumb anyways. All foxes aren't the same. I mean, are _we_ exact clones of the Bouncingtons?" Her parents cringed at the mention of the obnoxious, constantly loudly partying family of bunnies down the street.

"Well…no…" Stu admitted.

"That's not what we're saying, sweetie," Bonnie interjected. "It's not that all foxes are clones of one another, we're just trying to warn you about a certain _personality type_ they all share. They're just predisposed to be nasty."

"Oh yeah?" Judy crossed her arms. "What evidence do you have for that _at all?_ "

"Well, don't you remember what Gideon Grey did to you?" Her mother's paw reached out to stroke the cheek where the burly fox had scratched her all those years ago, but she swatted it away in irritation.

"Oh, please! Gideon Grey was a fox who _happened_ to be mean. I've known plenty of other species, _including_ bunnies, who were mean. Besides, when have you two known _any other foxes_ to make bad judgements about them with? And hey, where is she going?"

Bonnie had abruptly turned and walked briskly out of the room, as if suddenly realizing she was late for an appointment. Stu watched her go before turning back to his daughter and shrugging irritably.

"Well, I don't know, but that's beside the point. What we're been trying to say, Jude, is that you really shouldn't be hanging around with a fox. They're just too…unpredictable. There's a good reason predators have to wear those shock collars."

"No, there isn't!" Judy snapped. "It's completely idiotic. Making all predators wear those…those barbaric _things_ to keep them in line when most of them haven't done anything at all to deserve it."

"Well, _enough_ predators have showed aggressive behavior for the government to feel the need to interfere," Stu growled. "That doesn't seem like 'most not doing anything at all to deserve it' to me."

Judy crossed her arms. "What, so a couple predators step out of line and it's right to punish the _entire biological order_ for it?"

"Better be safe than sorry, Jude! Anyhow, you really shouldn't be friends with that fox. For your own safety, you know."

She glared at her father defiantly. "What right do you have to tell me who I can and can't be friends with? You don't own me!"

"I'm your father, Judy, I'm just trying to do what's best for you—"

"Oh, and you know that, do you? I guess I'm too stupid and naïve to make accurate judges of anyone's character? I'm almost an adult, you know. One of these days, you're going to have to start letting me trust my own judgement."

Stu winced, seeming to realize he had crossed a line. "Well, you're right that it isn't my place to dictate who your friends are," he sighed. "All I'm asking is that you be careful." In response, Judy glowered at him.

"Ah, here it is!" Judy' mother's voice drifted in from the other room, and she came hopping excitedly through the door, a small pink cylinder in her paw.

Judy narrowed her eyes. "What's that?"

"Well, I figured if you were going to be hanging out with a fox, you'd better take some of this!" She held out the little cylinder to her daughter, which the younger rabbit now saw was labelled with _Fox Away_.

" _Mom!_ " Judy angrily swatted the fox repellant out of her mother's paw, sending it clattering to the floor.

"What?" Bonnie looked offended. "It never hurts to take precautions!"

"He's. My. _Friend,_ " Judy said through gritted teeth. "He'd never do anything to hurt me! Or anyone else, for that matter."

Bonnie and Stu exchanged an anxious glance, but both seemed to sag a little, clearly tired from arguing. "Sweetie, will you just take it?" Bonnie asked wearily.

" _No,_ " she said stubbornly, kicking the spray can away for extra emphasis. "I don't need to protect myself."

"Fine. But _we're_ going to hold onto this." Stu leaned down and picked up the fox repellent. "And if he makes _one_ wrong move on you while we're around, Judy—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you'll spray him into oblivion," Judy groaned, rolling her eyes. "And that's exactly why I'm going to take him out for milkshakes, so you two won't be hovering over our shoulders."

They both gave her a stern look. "Judy—" Bonnie started.

"What?" Judy laughed, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "I'll make sure he behaves. Or do you not trust me to look after myself?" She raised her eyebrows, giving her parents a prying look. Finally, her father sighed.

"Well, I suppose you're going to argue your way out any way I try to stop you, so go ahead. But please, for the love of god, be careful!"

Judy nodded earnestly to ease his mind, although really she wanted to roll her eyes. As she was walking out of the kitchen, she heard her mother muttering something under her breath about at least the house wouldn't be full of that nasty fox scent now and scare off the guests. She turned and shot her a dirty look before hurrying into the living room.

"Come on," she practically growled to Nick, marching toward the front door. "We're leaving."

"Oh dear!" He smirked triumphantly. "Meeting with the folks not go so well?"

"It went _fine._ "

"Didn't sound like it from where I was standing."

Judy's stomach tightened. "How much did you hear?"

"Well, nothing specific, just the lot of you snapping at each other and sounding none too pleased."

"Well…" Judy's voice shook slightly. "I think it's going to be a while before they're okay with…this…" She gestured back and forth between them. "But they're going to get there! I talked as much sense into them as I could, and I think they're already on their way!"

It probably wasn't true, but Judy put on her best cheerful smile, determined to fool her friend.

"Well, Carrots, you know what this calls for?" He grinned. " _I told you_ —"

"No, no, wait!" She waved her paws wildly before he could finish the phrase. "I _did_ talk some sense into them! I was able to convince them to let us go out for milkshakes and they didn't really put up a fight. They're okay with us hanging out as long as…well, as long as we're not doing anything parents would disapprove of." She winked, trying to cover up the way her stomach sank at the innocent-sounding lie. She was also about to point out how she had also talked them out of giving her fox repellent, but she realized just in time that it might be better not to mention that.

"Milkshakes?" Nick raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, we're going to that diner a few blocks away," she announced. "If I'm going to show you to my parents, I'm going to show you to everyone else, too. I'm done hiding you, Nick."

"Carrots…" His face fell. "Carrots, you know we can't do that. Won't we get in some kind of trouble?"

Judy snorted. "No, of course not! There's no laws against 'predator-prey fraternization,' if that's what you're worried about. I would know." She gave him a playful smile. "I mean _sure_ , it's _frowned upon_ , but since when have you cared about that?"

He smirked at her. "Since never."

"That's what I thought!" She grinned widely. "Let's get out of here."

Judy strode out of her own front door and down the sidewalk that led across her yard at a pace so brisk that Nick, who had longer legs than her, was desperately struggling to keep up. As they got farther away from the house, Judy's entire body visibly slackened, and the tiniest sigh of relief escaped her lips.

To her dismay, Nick heard and let out a snicker. "Come on Carrots, can't I at least get a _little_ 'I told you so?' I mean, your parents had to have flipped their shit somewhat, or else you wouldn't have been so quick to want to leave the house."

"Clever fox," she muttered. "Well, _actually_ , I just didn't want them to be chaperoning us."

"Which they wouldn't bother with if I wasn't a fox!" he sang.

"That's not true! They just…um…"

"Come on. Just admit that it was bad already."

"Okay, okay, _fine_ ," she grunted. "It didn't go well! Have your stupid 'I told you so.' Doesn't change the fact that I'm glad I got it out of the way."

He practically shouted the words, shoving her to one side and cackling maniacally as he did so. She rolled her eyes, but a tiny grin forced its way out. Oddly enough, considering the whole reason he was gloating in the first place was because she had had a nasty fight with her parents, the mood improved significantly after said gloating.

All the way down the three blocks, they talked and joked about various things, laughing and teasing each other as they went. When they finally walked through the doors of the little 50's-themed diner, their good mood simmered out briefly as they were met by several pairs of suspicious eyes. It seemed that everyone turned to get a look, perplexed as to why a fox and a bunny were grabbing a snack together.

The hostess, looking a bit skeptical herself, gave them an extremely forced-looking smile and hurriedly showed them to a booth. Judy found herself trying to get behind Nick, and put the fox between herself and everyone's stares. She hadn't thought the judgmental sets of eyes would bother her at all, but the way they were boring harshly into her felt like they were burning holes in her skin. She found herself tempted to drag Nick out of the diner and call the whole thing off, but she forced herself to keep walking.

 _I won't let them see that they get to us._

As soon as they had sat down, Judy let out a groan. "Are they going to stare at us like that the entire time we're here?"

"Nah, they won't," Nick assured her with a grin. He held up his paw, middle finger sticking up, and swept it around the air wildly. Several of the staring animals let out offended scoffs, but ultimately turned the other way. Nick smirked as several leering parents steered their children's heads away.

Despite the crudeness of the gesture, Judy couldn't help but smile. "Nice one!"

As they ordered their milkshakes (Nick with cookie dough, Judy with banana cream pie) and the joking mood returned, the nasty stares slowly slipped from Judy's mind. All she could see was her friend, laughing and smiling and looking oh-so-incredibly- _cute_ so much that all she really wanted to do was lean across the table and grab him by the collar of his shirt and kiss him as hard as she possibly could.

Not that she could afford to think like that. The judging looks might come back.

But for the moment she was content to drink sugary dairy confections with him, countering his snide comments with biting ones of her own and pushing away the bittersweet longing that never really went away.

It was for the best, she kept having to tell herself. If the world could barely handle a predator-prey friendship, there was no way it was ready for two of them to fall in love with each other.

* * *

 **Heyoooo, new chapter! Heh, forgot how much I liked this one :3 All poor Judy wants to do is not keep her best friend a secret, but her parents don't take it as well as she hopes D: So what does she do? The only natural thing: Essentially tells them "fuck you" and goes to get him milkshakes!**

 **I think I like this chapter a lot because it shows how Judy is maturing, and finally fully overcoming these predator prejudices, even the subconscious ones, that have affected her her whole life. After all, the main thing preventing her from wanting to be seen with Nick was a subconscious sort of shame about it, and now she's finally over that. And she also stands up to her super racist parents! Wooooo! At least Stu has decided to be less of a dick as the years have gone by XD**

 **Well, we're more than halfway through at this point, so just a few more updates! I hope you're all still enjoying the story. And THANK YOU AGAIN for your awesome reviews! A special shout-out to J Chute Norway, who wrote an ENTIRE SONG to go with the story on chapter 6! It's the cutest and saddest thing ever D: But again, I read and love all of your reviews, even if I don't reply. Until next update!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 24**

 **Nick: 26**

* * *

"You know, passersby are going to think we're overly-detailed decorative statues erected by the ZPD if we stand here much longer."

Nick and Judy were standing on the tiny strip of concrete between the two roads leaning in and out of the Zootopia Police Academy. The neat, symmetrical stone gateway towered up on either side of them, and in front of them a perfectly-manicured circular lawn stretched out to meet the looming red-brick form of the academy.

"One of these days, you should probably go inside," Nick went on.

"I know, I know," Judy sighed. "It's just…I don't know…"

"It's just what?" her friend asked, giving her a skeptical look.

"I'm scared."

"Scared?"

She laughed dryly. "It's kind of ironic, isn't it? I have this thing I've been wanting my whole life, but when it's standing _right there_ , I can't go get it because I'm absolutely terrified."

"Now wait just a minute!" He crossed his arms and smirked at her. "You told me when we were 8 that you weren't scared of anything! What gives, Carrots?"

"Oh, well…" She lowered her ears and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "I guess I stand corrected."

"What are you so afraid of, anyway?" He elbowed her playfully in the side. "This is what you've been working toward since you were practically a fetus. It's not like you won't be ready."

"B—but what if I'm _not_ ready?" she said, grabbing both his arms and looking up at him anxiously. She shook him lightly for a brief few seconds as she went on. "What if it's all way harder than I thought it would be, and I can't handle it? What if I have to drop out and go to college to become an accountant like my parents have been nagging me to?"

"Well, that _would_ be a major drag," Nick agreed, face slowly slipping into an exaggerated frown. "Poor little bunny, just sitting all alone in a cubicle and crunching numbers to determine business profits, far, far away from anything that makes the world even a remotely better place."

Judy scowled at him. "Nick!"

"Day in and day out, mindlessly feeding the computer numbers and figures and ruing the day, simply _ruing the day_ , when she decided to stay up until 3 a.m. binge-watching _Gossip Squirrel_ the day before her first day of police training."

She crossed her arms. "I did _not!_ "

"Oh, well, you're fine then." Nick's face brightened into a playful grin. "See, that's the whole reason you failed your police training in this fictional universe I just made up where you're forced to become an accountant. So as long as you didn't do that, you're fine."

"Nick, I'm _trying_ to be serious," she sighed. "If I walk in there, I have to face the possibility of…well, what if I really can't handle it, and everything I've ever worked for just kind of…falls apart? What am I going to do then?"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, do you even _hear_ yourself? 'Oh no, I've gotten perfect grades and been good at everything my whole life, and I've been at the gym two hours every day for like a month to get fit for this! But what if I'm not good enough for some _police training?_ '" He imitated her in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. "Come on, you've been working your ass off for this since as long as I can remember. They're not going to beat you that easily. And if they do…well…either someone kidnapped Judy Hopps and replaced her with an imposter, or you just got really pathetic all of the sudden."

" _Hey!_ " She punched him in the side, and he snickered.

"Okay, but what I'm _trying_ to say is that that's not you. You don't fail stuff. You don't just pack your bags and head home after struggling for five seconds. You're so annoyingly persistent that no matter what they throw at you, you're going to find out a way to get through it. That's just how Judy Hopps works. So what are you so afraid of?"

Judy let out a small sigh. Nick was right about one thing. She had no intention of giving up on this easily.

She imagined herself walking into the academy, shoulders squared with confidence and ears held high above her head. She imagined herself shooting pleasant smiles and friendly waves to any animal who she passed, feeling ready to conquer the entire world.

But then she imagined the looming lions and rhinos and elephants, giving her disapproving looks and making it all too clear that she wasn't meant to be there. She imagined keeping a smile pasted on her face, but feeling all of the excitement that had been bubbling inside of her from her eartips to her cottonball tail slowly drain out of her until her body felt like an empty shell, aimlessly plodding forward but feeling nothing.

"They're going to stare at me," she said softly.

Nick seemed entirely unfazed. "That's never bothered you before. Why should it bother you now?"

Judy smiled at the ground. Nick was right again.

She hated when he was right.

"Well, I always _thought_ it didn't, but now that it's about to happen on such a large scale, I'm not so sure anymore," she said, trying to justify herself.

Nick shrugged. "It might make you self-conscious at first, but I'd wager after about five minutes, you'll stop giving a crap. That's the thing about being stared at. You…kind of get used to it."

His smile faltered for just a second, his shoulders slumping. Judy looked up at him in concern, placing her paw briefly on his arm. Did a fox have to put up with constant leering looks?

"But hey, you can take it," Nick said, brightening up again. "If anyone's got a backbone, Carrots, it's you."

"But what if I actually _don't_ , and—"

"Go on!" He kept grinning and gave her a hard shove forward. "Go knock 'em dead, Carrots!"

"But Niiiiiick!" She turned and gave him a worried look, and he rolled his eyes.

"Listen, Judy, just go in there already, will you?" he sighed. "I can't stand here all day long being your encouragement coach. My shift starts in 30 minutes."

"Oh. Right." Judy squirmed with guilt. She had forgotten Nick had work.

She gave him a short, tight hug and looked up at him adoringly. "Hey, thanks for coming here with me today," she said.

He shrugged. "Ah, what are friends for?"

"And thanks for…you know…supporting me through all of this," she added. "I can't tell you how much it means to me."

"Ah, don't be such a sap." His tone was teasing, but he turned to her and gave her a soft, warm smile that made her whole stomach feel like it was fluttering. Although she smiled cheerfully back, her entire body went a little weak. Sweet cheese and crackers, she wanted him so _bad_. She silently cursed the electric collars and hovering taboo that kept her from holding onto him and never letting go as long as she lived.

If there was any way in the world she could walk all over the city and holding his hand, showing off that he was hers, she would.

"Now hop along." Nick dragged her out of her thoughts by giving her another shove toward the academy. "My manager's not going to be too happy if I tell him I'm late because my bunny friend was too much of a scaredy-cat to just go to her police training already."

"Okay." Judy took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "Let's do this."

"Yeah!"

"I'm gonna walk in there and kick major butt."

"Yeah!"

"The ZPD better get ready, because there's no way they could be ready for me."

"YEAH!"

"All right!" Judy turned and grinned at Nick, bouncing up and down. "I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna do it!"

Without waiting for another word from him, Judy took off running toward the massive red-brick building, darting across the road and racing through the short, impeccably-trimmed lawn. "If you flunk out, I'm sure there's an open spot at the warehouse I work at!" Nick called after her.

"I don't think that'll be necessary!" she called back.

She stopped in front of the heavy oak door, taking one last shaking breath before hopping up and turning the knob.

As soon as Judy shut the door behind her, a soft _ding_ came from her back pocket. She pulled out her phone.

 _1 text from Dumb Fox._

She opened it up and smiled fondly as she read it.

 _Good luck in there, Carrots! I know you're going to wow their asses off. And just to make sure you do, I've sent you some words of encouragement._

After the text, there was a playable sound message. Judy wrinkled her nose in confusion, wondering what he said in there that he couldn't put in the rest of the text, but shrugged and pressed the play button.

The loudest, most obnoxious fart sound she had ever heard in her life echoed through the empty front hallway of the police academy. Cheeks starting to burn, Judy looked frantically around to make sure no one had heard and jammed her finger against the pause button again and again, trying to make it stop. On about the fifth attempt, she was successful.

 _That dumb fox!_ she thought, turning and glaring at the closed door. She imagined him still watching the academy from across the lawn, snickering to himself.

Pushing the fox from her mind, Judy directed her attention toward finding her way to the trainee assembly. She pulled up the email with the instructions on how to get to the auditorium, and carefully picked her way through one hallway, and the next, and the next, until she finally arrived at the pair of rather plain, tan-painted doors leading into the auditorium.

To Judy's relief, it was still a solid 15 minutes before the assembly started. Existing cops were gathered around the room, standing and leaning against the walls. They were presumably to keep an eye on the trainees, although Judy couldn't imagine why they would need so many.

The chairs were largely empty, since most of the trainees had chosen to use the time before the assembly to get up and introduce themselves to the officers around the room. Judy was more than happy to join in, setting her bag down on the nearest chair and bounding over to the nearest lion officer.

"Hi!" she bubbled. "I'm Judy Hopps, one of the new trainees! What's your name?"

She reached up her paw to shake his. He looked slowly down at her, no-nonsense expression on his face making Judy wince slightly.

"Darrell Roarinson, Precinct 5," he grunted, sounding about as uninterested as a lion possibly could. He put a massive paw down and gave her a very limp handshake, which Judy wasn't sure was because he was making an effort not to shake her too hard and hurt her or if he really could not give two tenths of a care. She found herself hoping for the former, although it was still embarrassingly demeaning to be treated as delicate.

Most of the other officers she met seemed cold and distant, or worse, greeted her with barely-concealed derision and condescending tones. The one notable exception was a tall, thin zebra, who gave Judy a very firm handshake (as firm as you could give with a hoof, anyhow) and was the only one who seemed to be looking at her as anything even resembling to an equal.

"Hi, I'm Judy Hopps, one of the new trainees," she repeated for the twentieth time, struggling to keep her cheerful tone.

"Well, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Ms. Hopps," the zebra said, looking her straight in the eye. "I'm Catarina Longmane, Precinct 1. I wish you the very best of luck with your training, and I hope that I will get to have the pleasure of working with you."

Judy wondered if she repeated those exact same lines for every trainee she met, but she sounded genuine enough. Besides, something about the zebra cop inexplicably put her at ease.

At first Judy thought it was the unusually friendly gleam in her eyes, but after a moment she realized it was actually because the zebra cop seemed vaguely familiar.

Judy continued down the line of cops, exchanging unenthusiastic handshakes and giving forced, hollow introductions. It was only when she sat down and listened to the polar bear drill instructor begin to assign the trainees into their individual training groups that it dawned on her.

Catarina Longmane.

Longmane.

The same zebra who had scolded her and Nick when she took his collar off after the Junior Ranger Scout initiation ceremony, all those years ago. The same zebra who had told her gently, but firmly, to never take a predator's shock collar off again. The same zebra who knew Judy Hopps had, young as she may have been at the time, broken the law.

She was _here?_

Judy gulped.

She squared her shoulders, vowing that Catarina Longmane was never going to realize who she was.

Her violet eyes strayed to the zebra officer, still leaning against the same spot on the wall. Just before she looked away, Catarina Longmane turned and gave her a friendly nod. Judy hastily nodded back before snapping her head in the other direction, fur starting to bristle slightly before it slowly relaxed.

It would seem that, for now at least, Catarina had not the faintest idea that the bunny who had just introduced herself to her was the very same bunny who had so innocently-but-not-so-innocently broken the law a mere 16 years ago.

She let herself sink deeper into her chair, letting the thought drift away as she turned her full attention to the training ahead.

* * *

 **What time is it? UPDATE TIME!**

 **Yo, we're on the home stretch of these! :D Only a few more chapters left!**

 **So reading back over this chapter, I forgot how much I liked it. See, I feel like the part that Zootopia DIDN'T show was the part where Judy started having crippling self-doubt that she couldn't actually achieve her lifelong dream. Speaking from experience, no matter HOW hardcore determined you are to do something, you're still going to have moments when you absolutely FREAK OUT because SHIT, WHAT DO I DO WITH MY LIFE IF I CAN'T DO THIS ONE THING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO?**

 **(Also took some cues from Rapunzel from Tangled, who was actually really scared when she was on the verge of achieving her dream. I kind of feel like Judy would be the same way).**

 **I also made a point of having Nick encourage her in a very…Nick way XD He's definitely not sunshine and rainbows all the time...he's pretty blunt, but in a way that points out the qualities that will realistically ensure Judy will probably succeed rather than come up with reasons she might realistically fail. And I think that kind of realism is exactly what Judy needs in this situation, if that makes any sense.**

 **AHAHAHAHA IF YOU DON'T THINK NICK WOULD PUT A FART RECORDING ON JUDY'S PHONE, YOU'RE WRONG**

 **Fun fact: The zebra cop from Chapter 3 was originally going to be a one-shot character whose main role was to get Judy and Nick out of trouble that one time, but then I ended up liking her reasonable-authority-figure persona so much that I decided to bring her back! And funnily enough, her presence actually ended up changing around the latter part of the story a lot XD And she even ended up changing the way the ending went a bit! So Catarina will definitely be back from here! How will she impact the story? You'll just have to wait and see!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 25**

 **Nick: 27**

* * *

"You know, we probably shouldn't have broken the bank on something this expensive," Judy muttered, filling out the restaurant check and eyeing the bill uneasily. The escargot, gourmet grilled lobster tail, and hefty piece of blueberry cheesecake sat comfortably in her stomach, but the enormous charge convinced her that perhaps she shouldn't have been so extravagant. Nick was eyeing his own bill with a grimace which he was trying (and failing miserably) to disguise as a cheerful smile.

"Oh come on, Carrots!" he said. "You made it through all of your police training without being accidentally stepped on by a rhino! I think that's very deserving of extravagant dinners."

"Sure, if I don't want to have electricity for the next month," she mumbled.

Ah, bills. Her least favorite part of moving away from home.

Nick gave her an incredulous look. "You just achieved your lifelong dream and graduated at the top of your class! I think that deserves a bit in the way of treating yourself."

Judy sighed, looking over her friend. This whole celebratory dinner had been his idea, and he didn't seem to regret it in the least, but she still found herself worrying about him. With his barely-above-minimum-wage factory job, he had a lot less extra money to spare than she did.

She had offered to cover dessert, but it hadn't helped much. His own etouffee had cost a pretty penny.

"I'm sorry," she said suddenly, although she wasn't entirely sure what she was apologizing for. Letting Nick follow through with this? Her making a bigger salary? Him being stuck at the kind of jobs only a fox could get? He gave her a puzzled look, as if wondering the same thing.

"Maybe we shouldn't have done this," she added quickly.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Tsk tsk, always veering on the cautious side these days. What happened to the little Judy who climbed on roofs and took off predators' shock collars just to be rebellious?"

" _Shhhh!_ " She glared at him, eyes briefly flicking around the restaurant to make sure no one had heard.

Nick smirked. "Relax, I'm pretty sure there aren't any recording devices in the napkins."

"Still! You need to be careful about saying stuff like that."

"Okay." His expression faltered slightly, and a tinge of guilt worked its way into his green eyes. "Seriously though, lighten up," he added. "It's not going to ruin your perfect bunny-cop life to splurge a little and take a stupid risk every now and then. I think we've learned that a few times." His grin returned, and she readily grinned back.

"You're such a dumb fox," she said.

He leaned across the table and poked her on the nose. "I only learn from the best!" She giggled.

The waitress, a tall, slender cheetah, came and snatched up their checks and strutted off back toward the kitchen. When she returned, she was smirking slightly.

"Splitting the bill, I see," she said. She turned to Nick. "I think you've found yourself a keeper. Nothing quite as nice as a girl who doesn't expect her date to pay for her!"

"Oh, uh…" Judy's face grew hot. "We're not…he's not…"

"Definitely not," Nick added emphatically.

"My mistake," the cheetah said, still smirking. "For what it's worth though, you two would make a cute couple."

Her tone was teasing, but both bunny and fox burned with embarrassment.

As soon as they got out to the parking lot and climbed into Judy's car, she turned to Nick and forced a smile.

"Phew, sure glad we're out of there!" she said, laughing uncomfortably. "How awkward was _that?_ "

"Very," Nick agreed, sounding equally uncomfortable.

As Judy pulled out onto the street, a short silence fell over them. When Nick spoke up again, his voice had taken on a serious tone.

"Judy?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think it's going to…" He hesitated. "Do you think it's going to hurt your job that your best friend's a fox?"

 _No one has to know_. As soon as her mind had formed the thought, Judy wanted to smack herself.

"No, why should it?" she settled for instead, careful to keep her voice casual. "There are lots of predators on the force, it's not like they have something against them."

"Not just any predator, though," Nick argued. "A fox. You know, the ones who are known for being the criminal types." He smiled meekly.

Judy snorted. "Who cares? Anyone knows they're not _all_ like that. I might not mention that popsicle hustling you do on the side, though," she added teasingly.

"Right, I know." His serious look faltered, but only for a second. "I just don't want to get in your way, Carrots."

Judy rolled her eyes. "What are they going to do, fire me? If I have to take some dirty looks from my coworkers instead of ditching my lifelong best friend, I think I'll go with the former."

"Well, thank you." He gave her a small smile. "I appreciate that."

"You really _do_ need to stop with your popsicle business, though," she said with a sigh. "That's super slimy."

"But so _lucrative!_ " he said with a grin. "I'll have you know, I made almost 330 dollars last week, Hopps! How else do you think I was able to buy so much cheesecake?"

"Ah. Of course." Judy rolled her eyes again. It was easy to forget that through his shifty popsicle sales, he actually had quite a bit of money to spare.

No wonder lives of crime appealed to all the foxes trying to scrape by on minimum-wage jobs.

Although Nick looked incredibly pleased with himself at the moment, it was a disturbing thought.

She tried not to dwell on it, turning her attention to turn signals and lane merging and cheesecake and their satiating celebration dinner.

That had to be enough for now, she thought.

* * *

 **Yay, time for an update! My apologies for such a short chapter. If I remember correctly, I was going to tack this onto one of the other chapters, but it didn't really fit with any of them agewise and I wanted to make it its own thing, so here we are. Just a tiny one-shot of Judy and Nick doing fun adulty things, like going out to dinner with no adult supervision! :D And being mistaken for a couple! :D And let's not forget the mandatory depressing aside about how hard foxes have it in the local economy! :D**

 **I DID include this chapter partly for the little snippet where Nick asks if he'll hurt Judy's job, and she basically says "fuck em" even though it's her lifelong dream job. YAY FOR HEARTWARMING MOMENTS! It's pretty brief, but I love that part.**

 **In terms of other important stuff that happens in this chapter…well, there's not much, but it does delve a bit more into my personal headcanon, which is that Judy was the daring, adventurous one as a kid and Nick was the cautious rule-follower, and then they kinda swapped roles when they got older, with Nick being the rule-bending hustler and Judy being the law enforcer! Funny how that works, isn't it? Also, if you don't think the cheeky cheetah waitress was Best Character, you're wrong XD**

 **So yeah, not much going on in this chapter, but here's your update. I promise things will get a bit more exciting next week! Also, we are really on the home stretch with these…only a few more chapters!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 26**

 **Nick: 28**

* * *

Judy took another sip of coffee, resting her head on her paws as she looked forlornly at the piles of paper on her desk. Sighing, she twirled a pen in her paw, only able to form one thought.

 _This isn't what I signed up for._

She woke up at 5:30 a.m. for _this?_ Sitting in a cubicle and idly filling out paperwork?

She let out an annoyed huff. _I should be out making a difference, not holed up doing what any shmuck at a 9 to 5 desk job can do!_

"Yer never going to get any work done by pouting, Hopps!" came a voice from the next cubicle over.

"What? No, no, I'm not pouting!" she insisted, channeling as much cheeriness into her voice as was possible.

"You've been sighing sadly for the last hour," her neighbor pointed out.

 _Aw nuggets, have I been?_ "N—no, I've just been breathing a bit loudly," she said perkily. "I'll try to quiet down!"

Taking a deep (and decidedly silent) breath, Judy grabbed the nearest paper and started aggressively filling it out. She was able to power through about 5 more forms before she flopped down onto her desk with her ears sprawled out and her forehead pressed against the oak, barely stopping herself from letting out the longest, most dramatic groan she had ever uttered.

 _I need a break._

She sat up and cautiously inched her way out of her seat and out of the entrance to her cubicle. Careful to make as little noise as possible, she crept past her neighbor's cube and made her way past the long row of cubicles into the hallway.

Only a few halls to walk through and she'd be at the little breakroom. Officer Fangmeyer had brought in cake a couple days ago, and the thought of nabbing the last piece had been the only thing that had kept Judy pushing through the workday.

The breakroom was at the end of the very next hallway when a passing open door caught Judy's eye. It was only open a crack, but she glimpsed a dark room lit only by an enormous computer screen.

This door must usually have been closed, because she was pretty sure she'd remember glancing into a room with a huge screen.

Nervously glancing up and down the hallway, Judy crept up to the open door and poked her head in. The screen was truly massive, almost taking up an entire wall. A program was opened up with a colossal grid filled with 8-digit numbers and species names. Below the screen was a control panel obviously meant for megafauna.

Whoever was supposed to be operating the computer was nowhere in sight. Gone on a break, or something similar. It seemed odd that no one had been asked to take it over while they were gone.

She glanced at the phone in the corner of the room, wondering if she should call the front desk and inform them that someone had seemingly left their post. She strolled over to it, her paw slowly drifting toward the receiver. Despite how hard she was trying to focus on doing what any sensible police officer would do, curiosity was making her itch more than an armful of mosquito bites.

Finally letting it get the better of her, she stepped away from the phone and walked over to the control panel. It was made up of cells that seemed to correspond to the ones on the big screen, each with two tiny screens of its own—one looking to be a map and one looking to be a menu—and a few buttons. Upon closer inspection, the big screen had something else written under the 8-digit numbers and species names.

Tiny names, almost fine print.

The realization hit her like a hard blow to the stomach, sending her stumbling backwards and clutching the back of a chair for support.

This was the control panel for the shock collars of every predator in the city. Whenever a collar came off, a signal telling the ZPD exactly where to go and exactly who to arrest must come in here.

Breathing hard, Judy found herself holding back an ironic laugh the more she thought about it. You would think that, out of the entire city, at least a predator or two would be trying to get away with taking their collar off, but nothing resembling any sort of signal was showing up on the control panel or the big screen.

Perhaps the threat of 20 years' prison time really _did_ deter all who were tempted to. Judy shuddered.

"Looking for someone?"

Judy's ears shot up at the sound of the voice, her nose twitching furiously. She whipped around to see a zebra standing in the doorway, giving her what looked like a knowing smile.

"O-Officer Longmane!" she stammered. "I—I w-was just wondering why there was no one in here."

"Officer Trunkett is in the breakroom," she replied softly. "He'll get a notification on his phone if any signals come in. It's been kind of a slow day today."

"Oh." Judy's ears slowly drooped as she hung her head in embarrassment.

"Well, I don't blame you for being curious." Officer Longmane trotted over to the dashboard, inspecting it thoughtfully. "I thought this place was pretty overwhelming the first time I ever saw it." She let out a sad sigh. "I've only had to sit watch in here a handful of times. It's never a particularly fun job."

"Boring?" Judy asked.

"Well…yes, it can be, on a day like this where nothing much happens," the zebra said. "But I can't feel good about sending an armed squadron after an animal who only wants to escape having their every move controlled. I suppose it's part of the job to enforce the laws you don't agree with, but that doesn't mean I like it."

Judy nodded vigorously, feeling something like relief that someone else questioned the shock collars the same way she did. "I can understand," she said sincerely.

Officer Longmane let out a short, resigned sigh, meeting Judy's purple eyes with her own blue ones for a few seconds before briskly clapping her hooves together. "Well! No matter," she said. "The force usually has me doing better things nowadays."

"Do you think…" Judy glanced back at the control panel, a strange mix of anticipation and dread creeping through her fur. "Do you think _I'll_ ever have to sit watch in here?"

The zebra seemed to sense her fear, and shook her head rapidly in reassurance. "Oh no, not anytime soon. I don't believe they asked me to until I had quite a bit of experience under my belt." Judy nodded, feeling mostly relieved. However, something that she couldn't quite place made her stomach sink a little.

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could Officer Longmane spoke again, her voice unexpectedly dropping to a whisper.

"I know who you are, Judy."

Violet eyes widened, and long gray ears shot straight up. The rabbit's entire being throbbed with fear.

"Wh—what?" she stammered, staring at the zebra with thinly-veiled terror.

Officer Longmane laughed softly. "How could I forget? Little purple-eyed Judy Hopps, the bunny who hated seeing her friend sad so much that she broke the law to cheer him up. Even among all the animals an officer meets, that sort of determination leaves an impression."

Whatever coherent speech Judy was usually able to form caught in her throat, leaving her blubbering and stammering as she tried to think of a sensible reply. Her entire face burned as a sense of impending doom slowly washed over her.

 _This is it. The end of my entire career. Right here, right now._

Officer Longmane smiled kindly at her, dulling her panic slightly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she said. "To be frank, I really admired your spirit. Still do. And you're a good cop, Hopps. I wouldn't want to get you kicked off…we need more animals like you on the force."

Judy felt her entire body deflate, the panic and dread that had taken over her washing away like water down a drain.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"Don't mention it."

"But…" Judy's ear twitched. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm curious. The fox." Officer Longmane regarded her thoughtfully. "Are you still friends with him?"

"Yes," Judy said.

"You must be thinking of him."

She nodded. "I do. All the time."

"I don't blame you."

There was a short silence, broken by the buzzing of Officer Longmane's phone after a few seconds. She pulled it out of her back pocket and studied it, her brow furrowing slightly in concern.

"Officer Trunkett's coming back soon," she said. "Don't dawdle."

With that, she slipped out of the doorway and Judy was left alone.

* * *

 **Eyyyyy, a significantly longer and more important chapter! Well, what can I say except…you're welcome? ;3 Yep, we truly are on the home stretch now; some pretty important plot stuff's about to go down, and the story is coming to a resolution soon! Well, resolution of sorts, anyway.**

 **I remember reading once that detective shows make being a police officer look a lot more exciting than it actually is, and you actually have to spend a lot of time filling out paperwork XD And it seems like the sort of thing that would drive Judy crazy, so here we get to see a little humorous moment of her realizing that sometimes her dream job is actually kinda boring X3 That, and it's a perfect segway into an important plot point!**

 **And Officer Longmane is BACK! Told you she'd be important, didn't I? And yep, she definitely remembers who Judy is…who wouldn't? Probably good that Prongston and the other police animals from Chapter 3 seem to have either retired or switched precincts XD But luckily for Judy, Catarina appears to have no intention of being a snitch. Or does she…?**

 **Fun fact: This chapter originally had a second half, but I decided that in order to make this whole project go on a liiiiiittle longer for you guys, I would turn it into its own chapter! :D Yay, the story now has one additional chapter! Probably good that this project is still going on…god knows I barely have time to write any new stuff with all of my schoolwork D: Man, if it weren't for this, I'd never be active on here!**

 **Well anyway, until next week! I hope you enjoy this dawn-of-important-plot-developments!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 26**

 **Nick: 28**

* * *

"Hopps, cut it out! The amount of secondhand embarrassment I feel for you right now is literally causing me pain."

Judy's off-key singing filled the one-room apartment as she sang loudly along to the song at the end of _Wrangled_ , doing a dance where she slid across the floor and whipped her ears all over the place to accompany it. Nick was curled on her bed with his paw on his face, watching her through a pair of fingers.

"I'll bet you're just saying that because you can't compete with my mad dance skills!" she taunted.

"No, I'm really not," he said with a smirk.

"Why don't you get up here and prove you can do better, then?" she said before quickly returning to her tone-deaf lyric squawking.

"As tempting as that sounds…I think I'll just stay down here and watch you humiliate yourself." His smirk widened.

"Oh no, you don't!" Before he could protest any more, Judy leaned across the bed and yanked him up by the paws in one quick movement. He quickly slid his paws out of hers, letting out a resigned sigh. "You got me there, Carrots. Now I'm out of the bed, so I _have_ to dance."

His hip-jerks and arm-waves from side to side were awkward at first, but once he got the hang of it, the movement became smooth and fluid to the point where he somewhat looked like he knew what he was going. Judy grinned.

"Hey, not bad!" she said.

"Well, certainly not as bad as you," he teased. She reached out and punched him playfully in the arm.

They danced until the end of the song, each trying to top the other with more and more outrageous moves until they both collapsed onto the bed, panting.

Judy's eyes wandered over to Nick, smiling and breathing hard with his tongue lolling out slightly. His tail was swishing back and forth in a thick orange plume, and his eyes were glowing with the same light they always did whenever his snarky façade was washed away like fall leaves by summer rain to give way to the same wide-eyed, energetic, and painfully idealistic fox she had known a long, long while ago.

And yet here she was, smiling broadly at him and realizing she adored both halves. It didn't matter whether he was making snide comments and teasing her about her ears or her dancing or her carrot cake, or whether he was quietly trusting her with a secret or smiling fondly down at her and telling her she was a clever bunny. She wanted every last fur on his body, all of the green in his eyes, every last part of his beautiful clever sarcastic mind.

She wanted all of him so much that it made her throb and ache, her body twisting itself into knots in hopeless longing.

But did he know? _Should_ he know?

Probably not.

"So Carrots." He turned and grinned at her. "How would _you_ fare being stuck in a tower for 18 years?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I'd probably go insane."

"Would your ears get really long instead of your hair?" he teased.

Judy shuddered. "I hope not. That would be a major hassle!"

"You know, I can't imagine why he gave up that crown. He could've made bank if he kept it!"

"Oh, come on!" Judy rolled her eyes. "He probably made plenty of bank becoming a prince and all."

Nick shrugged. "Well, I suppose you have a point there." He turned and smirked at her. "You know, maybe I should consider becoming a thief on the side. Might bring in more bucks than popsickle-conning!"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Why not just marry a princess?"

"Funny, those seem to be in short supply around here."

"Well, where are you going to find tiaras to steal, anyway?"

"I think the Zootopia Treasure Museum might have a thing or two for me to nab! Then I can sell them all on the black market." He rubbed his paws together, cackling maniacally.

Judy laughed lightly. "Well, there's an idea! And then you might finally be able to give up your ridiculous popsicle-hustling business."

"Yeah, and who knows? I might even be able to pay this month's rent!"

His tone was light and his eyes were glinting with their usual humor, but just for a second the cheery look seemed to fall to reveal a split-second of genuine anxiety. The happiness was quickly back, leaving Judy to wonder if she'd imagined the whole thing.

Nonetheless, her expression grew serious.

"Nick, you know…if you ever wanted to try and look for a better job, I'd write you a letter of rec."

He raised his eyebrows. "You're not a past employer."

"Well, no, but I'm a law enforcement officer, so I just thought if someone with a government job put in a nice word for you…"

Nick curled his lip. "What, so they know I'm not a criminal?"

She shook her head rapidly. "No, no, that's not what I meant at all! I'd do whatever I could to help you with this no matter what job I had. I _know_ how hard it is for foxes to get jobs!"

He sighed. A guilty look washed into his green eyes, as if he was realizing that Judy didn't mean any harm.

"Look, Carrots, I appreciate the offer, but you don't have to do all that for me. I'm capable of finding a better job myself."

"I know you can, but I _want_ to help! I'm going to do everything I possibly can to get you out of that awful factory and doing something you actually like."

"Hey, you don't have to go out of your way…I mean, I know you're busy enough with your job…"

She crossed her arms. "It doesn't matter, I'm going to _make_ time to help you!"

"What's the point?" he sighed. "I'm a _predator_ …who wants to hire me? And seeing as my mom doesn't have much saved up, it's not like going to college was ever an option."

"Well, we'll find someone who does!" Judy insisted. "Come on, I'm sure not everyone in this whole city is going to discriminate. And we're not going to give up until we find you a good job! Don't be such a pessimist."

He gave her a forlorn look. "I'm not _trying_ to be a pessimist, I'm just trying to be realistic. And anyhow, I'm not worth you doing all this for, I'm just—"

"Yes, Nick, you _are!_ " she cut him off. "You _are_ worth me doing all this for, and I want to do all this for you and help you be the happiest you can be and I'll do anything I possibly can to help you because _I love you!_ "

Complete, empty silence washed over the room, the only sound being the soft hum of Judy's refrigerator. Nick turned and stared at her, his eyes boring into her like green headlight beams. It only took a few seconds for the spell to break, and Judy's eyes grew to the size of peaches. She slapped her paw to her mouth and let out a whimper.

 _Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no_

She wanted nothing more than to dissolve into a puddle at this particular moment.

 _Sweet cheese and crackers, I didn't mean to say that!_

"You do?" said Nick slowly.

Well, there was no going back now.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "I don't know what I was thinking, that was so _uncalled for_ and I totally didn't mean to say that out loud, it just slipped out and I just—"

"Judy." He cut her off sharply. "Do you mean it?"

She sucked in her breath and let it out again, letting the fact that whatever he said next might well ruin her life.

"Yes," she squeaked. "Yes, I love you. Please…uh…please don't hate me." She quickly hid her face in her paws.

"Judy." She heard the mattress moan as he crawled over to her, his snout leaning forward until it was a whiskerslength away from her ear.

"Why would I hate you?" he said softly. "I think I've loved you ever since that time I kissed you on the crate when I was 15."

"Wh—what?" She opened her eyes and stared at him in disbelief.

"Seeing you standing up there gloating, looking so sure of yourself, I think I just…" He rubbed the back of his head, grinning meekly. "I think I fell in love with you."

As what he was saying slowly dawned on her, her eyes widened until they were glowing like all the stars in the galaxy and her entire body felt like it had filled up with cream soda, bubbly and fizzy and sweet and everything perfect.

And more than anything, her body was throbbing with heavy, crushing relief.

So this is how it was. She didn't have to wonder anymore.

She wanted more than anything to throw herself into his arms. Instead, she settled for a beam.

"You were _15_ ," she teased. "It was probably hormones."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm no endocrine system expert, but I'm fairly sure the same hormones don't last for 11 years."

She rolled her eyes. "I just have a hard time believing you were in _love_ with me when you were 15."

Nick glared at her. "Carrots, I'm pouring my heart out here! Can't you just accept it? I…" He clutched his heart in mock hurt. "I thought you felt the same way!"

She responded with a kiss, turning her head to the side and closing the tantalizingly small gap between their lips. For eight seconds they pressed into each other, and it was only with great difficulty that they forced themselves to pull away.

"Fine," Judy said, smiling mischievously. "I'll believe you loved me when you were 15. I've had a crush on year for…whoo boy, I don't even know how many years now, so I guess I can believe it."

"Aww, you had a crush on me!" Nick smiled teasingly and clutched his heard in an exaggerated fashion.

Judy's cheeks grew hot. "Shut up! It's not like you didn't know!"

"Well?" He leaned in again until his nose was an inch away from hers again. "Are you gonna friendzone me again?"

She hesitated, considering the question. Nick found he was thinking about it too, going over all the reasons they had decided against being together all those years ago.

And somehow, he decided, none of them mattered anymore.

She broke into a wide grin. "Screw that!" She pulled him toward her for another short kiss. "I've waited too long already. I'm in _love_ with you, Nick." She bit her lip. "If I tried to stick to _only_ being your friend for the rest of my life, I'd probably go insane. I mean, I would if that's what _you_ wanted, but you know…wouldn't have been easy."

Nick still found his mind drifting back to the conversation they had had 11 years ago, and his paw slowly strayed up to the strip of leather around his neck. "But what about…"

"We'll work around it," she said firmly. "I mean…it'll be hard, and we're…well, we won't be able to get as intimate as some couples. But we'll find a way to make it work. Besides…" She smiled ruefully. "We've waited this long, haven't we? Might as well get off of this stupid 'just friends' merry-go-round and actually do something."

"That's the spirit!" Nick grinned. "Glad you finally saw the light!"

She rolled her eyes. "Says the one who _barely put up a fuss_ when I said we should only be friends."

"Well, I guess I saw the light too, then."

He laid down on the bed, and she sprawled out beside him, getting as close as she could without them touching. Nick smiled gently at her, looking like he wanted to caress her face.

"God, I love you," he said.

She closed her eyes, breathing in every last whiff of his scent. "I love you more," she whispered.

"That's highly debatable."

They stayed that way for a long time, nestled into the blankets, staring at each other and murmuring sweet nothings. And as she lay there in the almost-darkness finally getting what she had wanted for years and years and years, Judy supposed that was all she could really ask for.

But as the night wore on, the gap of a few inches in between them felt like it was growing and growing, eventually becoming some sort of gaping chasm that seemed to set them miles apart. And the more the night wore on, the more she wanted to dive across the chasm and do the unthinkable and hold him as close to her as was physically possible.

And she kept telling herself _No. Don't think about that. Think about what you have._

And she tried. She tried so very, very hard to think about what they had.

But the longer they spent curled on the bed, the more her head swam relentlessly with the haunting, torturing thoughts of what they didn't.

* * *

 **Yes hello! Despite my mental exhaustion due to school and some rather vexing boy problems, I am back for another update! I've been such a wreck lately that I just about skipped this week's update, but hey, a schedule's a schedule.**

 **HaHA, you THOUGHT this was going to be just another fluff chapter, but you thought WRONG! Lol I remember hating the overly-cheesy start to this chapter when I first wrote it, but reading back over it, it's actually kind of cute :3 Lol I'm headcanoning that Judy is a horrible singer, because there has to be SOME Disney princess-esque female character who can't sing for shit! Camon, how unfair is it that all of the Disney princesses just HAPPEN to have beautiful soprano voices? D: Well, Judy doesn't get one!**

 **Also, apt comparison to Tangled is apt, considering Judy and Nick's dynamic has been compared to Rapunzel and Flynn's dynamic on many occasions. So I had to throw that in there somewhere! Also an ironic comparison, given that I also happen to write Tangled fanfiction XD**

 **So a brief bit of fun before we get into something more serious, and then…OH SNAP! Bet you didn't see THAT coming! Yes, that's right folks, here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for! Then again, the story's drawing to a close, so it had to happen pretty soon.**

 **So YES, Judy and Nick are officially DATING! But what to do about those pesky collars?**

 **See you in two weeks! Thank you all again for your reviews and support!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Judy: 27**

 **Nick: 29**

* * *

"Judy."

Judy looked up from her paperwork to see a familiar zebra standing in the entrance to her cubicle, leaning casually against the wall with her legs crossed and one arm draped over the wall. The rabbit smiled broadly.

"Hey Catarina! What's up?"

"Listen, I was keeping watch in the collar room and I just got a call, so I was wondering if you'd be willing to take over for a while."

"Oh." Judy's ears drooped slightly.

"It's not too hard," Catarina reassured her quickly. "When you see a flashing red light on the big screen, just press the button that calls a dispatch team, and direct them to whatever location the light indicated."

"Right, right." Judy nodded earnestly, trying not to let her dismay show.

Catarina suddenly started to lean in, getting closer and closer to Judy until her snout was inches from Judy's ear. The rabbit flinched slightly at the unexpected movement, but didn't try to duck away.

"Press the down arrow key twice, and it should take you to the main menu," she muttered. "Then go to the third option down, and it should take you to another menu. Press the fifth option there, and then press the right button."

Without so much as a lick of further explanation, Catarina Longmane pulled back, gave Judy a friendly nod, and slipped out of the cubicle as quickly as she had come. Judy was left blinking in confusion, but nevertheless found herself snatching up the nearest notepad and jotting down the ambiguous directions as quickly as she could.

* * *

The sound of crickets filled the night air as Judy made her way from the car to the apartment building. She glanced briefly up at the sky as she walked in the door. Entirely inky black, with no light poking through except the tiny specks of stars and the sliver of moon.

She sighed as she got on the elevator. 2:30 a.m.…another late shift. Nick was probably already asleep.

She couldn't help chuckling to herself. She remembered he always used to wait up for her when they first moved in together, but after a while he started dozing off when waiting up on an especially late shift. She hardly faulted him for it, especially when he had to get up at 6:00 a.m. the next day to work a morning shift at his own job.

(They had been searching persistently for a better job, but they hadn't found anything yet. They were a long way from giving up in their search, though.)

As Judy got to her apartment door and began unlocking it, her ears pricked up as she detected a soft whimpering and yelping coming from inside it. Body suddenly tensing with worry, she sped up her unlocking twofold.

"Nick? NICK!" She burst inside, slamming the door shut behind her and racing for the bedroom they shared.

He was tossing and turning all over the bed they took turns sleeping in, whining and growling and yelping and everything in between. Eyes widening in horror, Judy ran over to the bed and leaned over the sleeping fox, giving him a few hard shakes.

"Nick, wake up! Wake _up!_ "

When he didn't seem to be stirred from his fitful sleep, Judy waited a few seconds and then tried again.

On the second try, his green eyes popped open, and Judy's shoulders slumped with relief. The fox let out several fast breaths, his fur starting to lie slightly flat when he seemed to process that she was looking down at him.

"J—Judy…"

"You were having nightmares again, weren't you?" She slipped into the bed beside him and reached out to give him brief, comforting touches.

"Yes," he said softly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

It was a few seconds before he answered.

"I…I was in a cage. And there were all these prey animals outside, and they kept reaching in and prodding me…over and over. Making my collar go off. Except it…it went off right away instead of after ten seconds. So I was just getting shocked…over and over…"

The fox huddled into himself, hugging his knees to his chest and curling into a tight ball. She reached out to stroke his arm, but he pulled away sharply.

"I didn't…I didn't even _do_ anything…" he whimpered.

Judy's eyes strayed back to the collar, and her lip curled in disgust.

"You don't need this," she growled. "You've _never_ needed this."

Quicker than Nick could process what was happening, Judy reached out and grabbed onto his collar, starting to undo the buckle. As soon as he realized what she was doing, he tugged himself out of her grasp, staring at her in horror.

"What the hell are you _doing?_ You remember what happened the last time we tried that!"

Judy's lips curled up into a slow smirk. "I sure do. And that's why I took precautions this time."

He gave her a skeptical look. "What are you talking about?"

Judy's smirk broadened into a grin. "Well, you're never going to guess what happened to me last week."

Still looking shaken, Nick let out a resigned sigh. "Get to the point, Carrots."

"Well…Catarina comes into my cube and asks me to keep watch in the room where the monitor all the shock collars. And she leans in so no one can hear and she gives me these really cryptic instructions…and then when I went in there, I realized they were instructions about how to turn the tracking device in a specific collar off!"

Nick's eyes widened in sudden realization, and his paw strayed to his collar. "Wait…so did you…"

"Yes!" She beamed at him. "I found the controls for your collar, and I turned the tracker off! So now if you take it off…well, the signal won't have anywhere to go. And whatever happens in here…well…" She smiled mischievously. "It'll be our little secret, Nick."

Nick's ears perked up, but his expression was still skeptical. "How do you know the next person who sits watch in the shock collar room won't just turn my tracker back on?"

"Well, no one has the time to check that _every single tracker_ is turned on each and every day," Judy explained. "The ZPD just assumes they all are, unless there's a good reason. But just for good measure, I've been checking in all week when no one's in there. And your tracker's still off!"

Nick narrowed his eyes. "How do you know Catarina wasn't trying to throw you under the bus? You know…tempt you into doing something that was super against the rules and then get you in trouble for it so she could advance her rank or something?"

Judy shrugged. "I trust her. I might not have a year ago, but I do now."

She reached for his collar, and although he ducked away again, he didn't duck away as abruptly. "Are you _sure_ the tracker's completely turned off?" he asked her, giving her a worried look.

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied steadily. "And if for some reason it's not…well, I'll take the heat. Just like I did last time. But I'm pretty sure we managed to outsmart them. I mean, you'll still have to wear it when we go out," she added quickly, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "But so long as you're in here…"

She leaned forward and undid the buckle on his collar, gently pulling it off his neck and putting it on the bedside table. She turned back to him.

"There. Now you look like you always should have."

His eyes still fixed on her, his paws inched up his side and felt at the fur around his neck, grasping over and over at the empty space the collar had left. The worry and uncertainty that had been written all over his face earlier slowly transformed into complete and utter wonder.

And the next second he was on top of her, paws looped around her back and kissing her as hard as he could.

Judy found herself counting in her head as a force of habit, even as her paws wrapped around his neck and she made herself thoroughly at home in his arms, kissing him even harder.

She counted to 10. She felt them both tense, pause a little to pull their mouths apart slightly. They both waited, if only for a third of a second. But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

And so she counted to 20. And then 30. And then a minute. And then 2 minutes.

The kiss was getting deeper and deeper and they were pulling each other as close as they possibly could and all of the sudden they weren't two animals any longer—just one big, wriggling, euphoric ball of fur intertwined and woven into itself so completely that if you tried to break it apart, it would be like ripping open a single creature.

Eventually, Judy found she had lost count entirely. The only things in the world were Nick's lips and the press of his furry body all around hers, completely engulfing her. At that moment, there was nothing else in the entire universe but the two of them. And the only thought she could form coherently was that this—every single last piece of it—was a thousand times better than she had ever imagined.

They had been making out for what Judy estimated was a good 15 minutes before they finally pulled apart, panting for breath. Nick's face was adorned with the biggest, brightest, stupidest grin Judy had ever seen, rivaling even the ones he had given her when they played as kids and he got especially into character. He laughed—a light, airy, elated laugh, and before Judy knew it, she had joined in, the two of them snorting and guffawing at absolutely nothing in particular.

When the laughter finally died down, Judy leaned in close to him again, pressing her head into his chest. He wrapped his arms even tighter around her.

"Tampering with government equipment just so you could make out with me?" he whispered teasingly into his ear. "You dirty cop."

She smiled into his fur. "Completely worth it."

"Well, I have to give it to you," he said. "You, Judy Hopps, are the cleverest bunny I've ever met. And sometimes the dumbest. Putting your job on the line to cuddle your boyfriend?"

"Don't regret a thing!" she sang.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You better."

There was a short silence. She turned and met his eyes.

"I'm going to hold onto you like this every night. Every night until the nightmares go away."

"Aww, but not after that?" He looked at her with mock hurt.

She smirked. "Maybe after that, if you _behave._ "

After a few moments, she let out a deep, contented sigh. Whatever gap had always existed between them was completely annihilated now. And it was _beautiful_.

 _He_ was beautiful. So much more when she got to see him and smell him and feel him this close.

Then again, she supposed this was how it had always been. Nick and Judy. Judy and Nick. Completely inseparable, now literally as well as figuratively.

"I love you," Nick murmured. Words that now felt so natural that they now seemed to hover in the air around them, always being breathed in by one and out by the other.

"I love you too," Judy whispered.

Nick smirked down at her with the impishness she had become so accustomed to. "Why don't you prove it, then?"

"Gladly."

She leaned in and kissed him again, and soon they were completely enveloped in each other once again.

And as they lay there, in one giant mass of fur completely blended and tangled together, Judy smiled into Nick's lips, her entire body trembling with joy. Because, she realized, they had triumphed. The whole world was against them, and they had _won_.

They had found a way to turn ten seconds into an eternity.

* * *

 **WHOOO! Last chapter, guys! We made it! Although I'm going to be relieved to have the stress of submitting this behind me and return my full attention to my other projects, I'm a little sad to end this bi-monthly ritual :( I always loved submitting a new part of the story and being able to look forward to all sorts of wonderful feedback from you guys! I've said it a million times already, but your reviews really do mean so much to me 3 This story ended up getting a much better turnout than I expected, and that makes me so happy :D**

 **By and large, I'm actually impressed with how much effort past!me actually put into this chapter, considering I was pretty much mentally done with the story by the time I got to this chapter and more than ready to move on to other things. Like I so easily could've seen myself just shitting it out in my rush to work on Hiccanna fanfiction XD But I actually bothered to take the time to make it a good, strong, ending, I think. Lol way to go, past!me! Damn, I was so ready to be done, you guys nearly got stuck with a rushed, crappy ending XD**

 **Well, for those of you who predicted Catarina was going to help Judy do some sketchy collar-disabling, you were RIGHT! And for those of you going like "You OOC-perpetuating fiend! Judy would NEVER break the law to cuddle her boyfriend!"…wouldn't she, though? Like I mentioned in the author's note of chapter 3, Judy seems to be the type of gal who has no issues breaking a few rules if she doesn't agree with them and is doing what she believes is best. And we've established many times how much she hates the shock collars, so I think she'd have 0 issue with doing some shady backhanded stuff in order to give Nick whatever relief she could from his collar. Also because, ya know, she loves him and stuff.**

 **And, because I am an absolute sucker for the one-member-of-the-OTP-comforting-the-other-after-a-nightmare, I had to throw that in! It's especially fun in Zootopia because there's just so many ways predators can have angsty nightmares :D But no worries, it's Judy to the rescue! With emotional support AND physical affection this time!**

 **Fun fact: This story was originally set to have a much more depressing ending. Basically, before I decided to bring Catarina back and have her help with some meddling, Judy was just gonna get really fed up with Nick's collar and take it off. And he's like "what no, you'll lose your job and go to jail" and she's like "well at least I'm doing it for something I believe in" or something along those lines. And then the story ends with you hearing the sirens outside their house and you kinda know what's gonna happen D: BUT then I was like "Wtf, self? What is fanfiction if not a means of fantastical escapism in which you get to see your OTP go through many trial and tribulations but ultimately end up living happily ever after to compensate for the failure rate of most real-life relationships? And also, you're gonna string these poor people along for 13 chapters just to give them a depressing-ass ending? You bastard!" So I refrained XD Meh, after all the crap I already put them through, I wasn't much feeling a depressing ending by the time I got to the end, either. But given the setting, I knew I wouldn't be able to realistically resolve the entire issue in one chapter. And as I mentioned before, I was really super ready to be done with some story and write some goddamn Hiccanna, so I wasn't about to drag the plot out for another 10 chapters and have some big political scandal about the collars and Nick and Judy starting a campaign to ban them and all that XD**

 **So I settled for a more realistic, if bittersweet, ending: The collars don't go away and anti-predator prejudice is still very much an issue, but Nick and Judy have found a way to work around the collar and have found a way to eliminate it as an obstacle in their own relationship. And the implication is indeed that other predator/prey couples, with the right resources or connections, could do the same thing! It may not be all up in the government's face like "these collars are bad!" but it is one quiet way of rebelling.**

 **One final not for anyone who actually bothers reading these long-winded things XD If you liked this fanfiction, I would strongly encourage you to check out some of my other fanfics! They're not Zootopia, but they ARE CGI crossovers, so…that's kind of in the same vein, right? ^^; Ah, who am I kidding, I'm just trying to get more reviews for my Jackunzel and Hiccanna fanfics since those are the fanfics I care the most about XD But I mean hey, if you like CGI crossovers, give my other fanfics a try! I probably won't be writing any more Zootopia fics, but there are many more to come in other fandoms.**

 **And with that, I bid you all adieu! I hope everyone liked my angsty slice-of-life shock collar fic, and thank you all again for all of your reviews and support!**


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